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Despite Rumors, Black Hole Factory Will Not Destroy Earth
LiveScience.com ^ | 19 September 2006 | Charles Q. Choi

Posted on 09/20/2006 6:58:16 PM PDT by annie laurie

Scientists could generate a black hole as often as every second when the world's most powerful particle accelerator comes online in 2007.

This potential "black hole factory" has raised fears that a stray black hole could devour our planet whole ...

But the chance of planetary annihilation by this means "is totally miniscule," ...

For one thing, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking calculated all black holes should emit radiation, and that tiny black holes should lose more mass than they absorb, evaporating within a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, "before they could gobble up any significant amount of matter," Landsberg said.

...

"Still, let's assume that even if Hawking is a genius, he's wrong, and that such black holes are more stable," Landsberg said. Nearly all of the black holes will be traveling fast enough from the accelerator to escape Earth's gravity. "Even if you produced 10 million black holes a year, only 10 would basically get trapped, orbiting around its center," Landsberg said.

However, such trapped black holes are so tiny, they could pass through a block of iron the distance from the Earth to the Moon and not hit anything. They would each take about 100 hours to gobble up one proton.

At that rate, even if one did not take into account the fact that each black hole would slow down every time it gobbled up a proton, and thus suck down matter at an even slower rate, "about 100 protons would be destroyed every year by such a black hole, so it would take much more than the age of universe to destroy even one milligram of Earth material," Landsberg concluded. "It's quite hard to destroy the Earth."

...

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: accelerator; blackhole; blackholesun; brownuniversity; cern; particletheory; physics
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To: Lady Jag

LOL


41 posted on 09/21/2006 9:25:30 AM PDT by Dr.Zoidberg (Mohammedism - Bringing you only the best of the 6th century for fourteen hundred years.)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi

I think I undersand what you mean, but what I am trying to understand is how something that doesn`t exist can affect something that does in the here and now. If the past doesn`t exist, then how can it affect today? You can say "the past is gone, it doesn`t exist" well then if it doesn`t exist then how can a photo exist? If the past doesn`t exist then it must have the same value as if something that never happened.

For example if you listen to a recording of some old jazz band from the 1920`s, how can that record exist if the past doesn`t exist when it comes to the here and now? What I am trying to see is if that record proves that the past does in fact exist and must exist continually for that record to exist.

To me, something that happened in the past and something that never happened cannot have the same value as it pertains to the now. I really think time can be defined as a sequence of multiple universes constantly being formed which gives the illusion of space, movement and time. If time slows down the faster you move to light speed, then wouldn`t it be safe to assume that at some point time must reverse? It can only slow down so much, but Einstein says mass will become infinite. Does this mean mass literally leaves one universe and enters another?

See, what I`m trying to do is find the answer to time travel so I can warn people ahead of time the horror of Hillary Clinton as Senator. Maybe even go back further and warn people of the Bill Clinton national security holocaust of the `90`s.


42 posted on 09/22/2006 3:46:11 PM PDT by Screamname (By God, pray for me, someone help me please! Hillary is my Senator! HELP MEEE!)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi
Oh yes, another thing to be seriously considered; If the past does exist as a set event in time, does this mean when we die in the here and now we don`t really die? How do we know we haven`t died and are now living in the past? You know what got me started on this whole time trip was this photograph below of Lincoln. My logical mind tells me it`s all pixels, all dots that make no sense close up, and in our reality that is exactly what it is. But on the other hand the information was taken directly from light that hit Lincolns face and went through many filters to what you see now.

If the starting point doesn`t exist constantly alongside our reality, would we see this pic? Remember, the guy is dead. The year 1865 doesn`t exist any more than a photo of Jesus on the cross, yet here we see Abe Lincoln because someone made a stamp in time, took a photo of him. The past must exist on a constant for this pic to exist and therefore the past does exist. But can it be breeched?


43 posted on 09/22/2006 5:45:04 PM PDT by Screamname (By God, pray for me, someone help me please! Hillary is my Senator! HELP MEEE!)
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