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Large Hadron Collider Creates 'Mini Big Bang' with Lead Ions
Telegraph.co.uk ^ | November 8, 2010 | Staff

Posted on 11/08/2010 9:22:04 AM PST by lbryce

The latest experiment at CERN went ahead despite warnings by a group called Heavy Ion Alert that it could trigger a catastrophic chain reaction that might destroy the Earth.

The reaction created temperatures a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun, which have not been reached since the first billionths of a second following the Big Bang.

This was expected to cause atomic particles such as protons and neutrons to melt, producing a "soup" of matter in a state previously unseen on Earth.

Scientists, including British particle physicists, will now study the particles in the hope of discovering what holds atoms together and gives them their mass.

The collisions were produced by firing lead ions – atoms with their electrons removed – at incredible speeds in opposite directions around the LHC's underground tunnel at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, near Geneva.

The heavyweight particle collisions follow seven months of earlier experiments crashing protons – which are 200 times lighter than lead ions – at near-light speeds.

Dr David Evans, of Birmingham University, said on Sunday: "We are thrilled with the achievement. The collisions generated mini Big Bangs and the highest temperatures and densities ever achieved in an experiment.

"This process took place in a safe, controlled environment generating incredibly hot and dense subatomic fireballs with temperatures of over ten trillion degrees – a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun."

He added: "At these temperatures even protons and neutrons, which make up the nuclei of atoms, melt resulting in a hot dense soup of quarks and gluons known as a Quark-Gluon Plasma.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bigbang; cosmology; lhc
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To paraphrase Mark Twain;The reports of Earth's demise are greatly exaggerated.
1 posted on 11/08/2010 9:22:11 AM PST by lbryce
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To: lbryce

I had sex with a lady midget once, ‘Mini Big Bang’ with Lead Pants


2 posted on 11/08/2010 9:24:34 AM PST by bunkerhill7
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To: lbryce

It happened. We’re gone.

This is all just an after-image.

The fading will start in the next few days.

You’ll feel a little light-headed at first but then...

...then, nothing.


3 posted on 11/08/2010 9:24:46 AM PST by samtheman
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To: lbryce
"This process took place in a safe, controlled environment generating incredibly hot and dense subatomic fireballs with temperatures of over ten trillion degrees – a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun."

"But not quite as hot as the center of the Earth." [/Al Gore]

4 posted on 11/08/2010 9:25:23 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: bunkerhill7

I woke up this morning with a Large Hadron....


5 posted on 11/08/2010 9:25:36 AM PST by ErnBatavia (It's not the Obama Administration....it's the "Obama Regime".)
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To: bunkerhill7

"..ya know, readin this headline upside down can cause immediate concern"

6 posted on 11/08/2010 9:26:29 AM PST by Doogle ((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: lbryce
The reaction created temperatures a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun, which have not been reached since the first billionths of a second following the Big Bang.

Which they know for certain, of course, even though they cannot predict tomorrow's weather with certainty.

7 posted on 11/08/2010 9:26:30 AM PST by Nevermore (...just a typical cracker, clinging to my Constitutional rights...)
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To: lbryce

Aside from wanting to see video of these experiments, can it make breakfast?


8 posted on 11/08/2010 9:34:44 AM PST by wastedyears (The only good unemployment statistic in America is the number of unemployed Dem officials.)
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To: ErnBatavia

bttt


9 posted on 11/08/2010 9:36:35 AM PST by ConservativeMan55
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To: lbryce

Did they ever find the missing black holes??

http://scienceray.com/astronomy/cern-missing-black-hole-raises-new-safety-concerns/


10 posted on 11/08/2010 9:36:48 AM PST by reagandemocrat
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To: lbryce

What kind of thermometer measures 10 trillion degrees?


11 posted on 11/08/2010 9:38:25 AM PST by dis.kevin (Dry white toast)
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To: lbryce

*The latest experiment at CERN went ahead despite warnings by a group called Heavy Ion Alert that it could trigger a catastrophic chain reaction that might destroy the Earth....*

...But they thought, what the heck, it’ll be so much fun!


12 posted on 11/08/2010 9:38:45 AM PST by PATRIOT1876 (Language, Borders, Culture, Full employment for those here legally)
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To: lbryce

So is it up to full power or is there a ways to go?


13 posted on 11/08/2010 9:39:07 AM PST by DManA
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To: lbryce
"This process took place in a safe, controlled environment generating incredibly hot and dense subatomic fireballs with temperatures of over ten trillion degrees – a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun."

How is this even possible? Does this mean we've created a metal that withstands the heat of the sun, or greater? I would think these kinds of temperatures would have melted the entire collider.

14 posted on 11/08/2010 9:39:25 AM PST by Major Matt Mason (I know more about Christine O'Donnell than I do about Barack Obama.)
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To: lbryce

Were they able to create matter out of nothing? If not, then it wasn’t a “mini big-bang”.


15 posted on 11/08/2010 9:40:36 AM PST by circlecity
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To: ErnBatavia

It wasn’t that lagre! ;-P


16 posted on 11/08/2010 9:42:22 AM PST by MortMan (To Obama "Kill them all and let [God] sort them out" is an abortion slogan.)
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To: dis.kevin

A real long one.


17 posted on 11/08/2010 9:42:44 AM PST by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists, call 'em what you will, they ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: Major Matt Mason

Temperature is not an instantaneous thing. High temps for very short times is containable.


18 posted on 11/08/2010 9:43:33 AM PST by MortMan (To Obama "Kill them all and let [God] sort them out" is an abortion slogan.)
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To: Major Matt Mason

Very VERY small center of location for the reaction. Very VERY short time frame.

It would be there and gone before the materials had a chance to melt.

A magnetic bottle (an area surrounded by a magnetic field) around the point of the explosion would also help contain the heat.


19 posted on 11/08/2010 9:45:45 AM PST by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: Major Matt Mason

Heat and temperature are different things.

You are routinely struck by cosmic ray particles with an effective temperature in the millions of degrees C.

But a single photon carries so little heat, so little energy that you simply didn’t notice.


20 posted on 11/08/2010 9:45:51 AM PST by agere_contra (...what if we won't eat the dog food?)
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