Earth Punctured By Tiny Cosmic Missles

The Telegraph ^ | 5-12-2002 | Robert Matthews

[buccaneer81]

Per second.

[Rebelbase]

In answer to your Q above, the speed of light is 186,000 miles/sec.

I question the findings based on the fact that any two points on the earth can be connected by a straight line. It seems that the research is trying to hang its hat on two siesmic events, happening seconds apart in two different parts of the world. Based on two events, it could be as much coinsidence as an actual discovery.

[misanthrope]

Do these things affect cats?

[misanthrope]

uhhhh..........bump

[misanthrope]

bump

[edwin hubble]

I find this interesting in several ways:

1. Size and density of the particles:
With dimensions of a arbitrary cube-shape of 0.12 mm at 1x10^14 times the density of lead 9 g/cm^3 works out to one metric ton.
(as the article says). But how can something that large (1/10th mm) go through the earth (about 4000 miles of which is molten and solid iron)... and keep going. I would expect more of a crater and explosion.

2. Relativistic mass factors additional energy.
It is going about 1/10 of 1% of c.

3. Within the past month or so the quark star has been tentatively identified... so this form of matter is otherwise believed to exist, but in a form more dense and trapped in gravity tighter than a neutron star. The "hot" stranglet must come from an early-cosmos event... or the collision of two quark stars?

4. Galactic (extra-solar system) objects (meteorites) are identified by their speeds... anything faster than about 130,000 mph cannot have originated in our solar system. Interesting.

[StormEye]

"1 million miles per hour. What's the speed of light? 186,000 miles per hour or miles per second?"

186,000mi/sec x 3,600sec/hr = 669,600,000mi/hr

That's six hundred and sixty-nine million six hundred thousand miles per hour. About the distance it takes a signal to travel from earth to Jupiter (one light hour).

[longshadow]

strange-quark nugget ping and space-time place-moment marker

[Kermit]

Thanks, I was thinking that the speed they were giving was faster than the speed of light. Which of course would blew up Relativity Theory.

[NormsRevenge]

Strangelets - sometimes also called strange-quark nuggets - are predicted to have many unusual properties, including a density about ten million million times greater than lead. Just a single pollen-size fragment is believed to weigh several tons.

The scientists looked for events producing two sharp signals, one as it entered Earth, the other as it emerged again. They found two such events, both in 1993. The first was on the morning of October 22. Seismometers in Turkey and Bolivia recorded a violent event in Antarctica that packed the punch of several thousand tons of TNT. The disturbance then ripped through Earth on a route that ended with it exiting through the floor of the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka just 26 seconds later - implying a speed of 900,000 mph.

Professor Eugene Herrin, a member of the team, said that two strangelets just one-tenth the breadth of a hair would account for the observations. "These things are extremely dense and travel at 40 times the speed of sound straight through the Earth - they'd hardly slow down as they went through."

WoW!!! CooL!

[longshadow]

But how can something that large (1/10th mm) go through the earth (about 4000 miles of which is molten and solid iron)... and keep going. I would expect more of a crater and explosion.

Think of these things as being incredibly small, sharp needles that are made of "unobtainium," weigh a ton, and are going almost a million miles per hour. They blast their way through almost anything because they are virtually indistructable, have almost no cross-sectional area (and hence don't encounter much matter when they penetrate) and have a kinetic energy that Indy race car drivers can only dream of.

Pretty weird stuff.....

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[VadeRetro]

I question the findings based on the fact that any two points on the earth can be connected by a straight line. It seems that the research is trying to hang its hat on two siesmic events, happening seconds apart in two different parts of the world. Based on two events, it could be as much coinsidence as an actual discovery.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

I checked the thread to see if anyone had already said what I was thinking. You're it.

[henderson field]

I was thinking of getting a car. But maybe I should hold off for a while. It might not be needed.

[headsonpikes]

I share your scepticism. Besides which, I don't think a tinfoil helmet would protect me against one of them suckers.

So I'd rather believe they don't exist! Neutrinos are enough of a worry! ;^)

[Mean Daddy]

There are several theories that promote faster then light travel. Do research on Bell's theorem. Basically, you split a molecule (or atom, I can never recall), and regardless of their relationship to one another, they will behave exactly alike. I believe it's involved in super string theory.

[RightWhale]

how does this NOT generate a big crater?

It's a different kind of matter that doesn't interact in the same way as meteorites.

[RightWhale]

Which of course would blew up Relativity Theory.

If this did that, the headline would have been different. Everybody [except those with career interests] wants relativity gone and the person who finally does it wouldn't be concerned with tiny cosmic missiles.

[reg45]

What's the speed of light? 186,000 miles per hour or miles per second?

186000 miles per second (300000 km per second). Thats my final answer!

[Liberal Classic]

"Does my insurance cover this?"