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IcerocketLarge Hadron Collider Probably Won't Destroy Earth
Despite its potential to create microscopic black holes, the new particle accelerator is unlikely to collapse our planet
Posted 06.23.2008 at 5:04 pm
6 Comments
Large Hadron Collider:
Photo by Image Editor (CC Licensed)
The Large Hadron Collider, the giant particle accelerator that's scheduled to begin colliding protons in August, has the potential to produce the long-sought Higgs boson. That elusive particle is a missing link in the commonly accepted model of physics. Observing it would be an important milestone in our understanding of the fundamental forces of the universe.
The LHC also has the potential, though, to give birth to microscopic black holes–which some have worried could destroy Earth by accreting its matter–as well as other objects such as magnetic monopoles, vacuum bubbles, and strangelets. A study group concluded in 2003 that these entities would pose no danger, and this month a reappraisal of the known facts re-substantiated that assurance.Microscopic black holes, because of their tinyness, are not expected to live long enough to pose a threat; they should decay very rapidly. If one does turn out to be stable, the study predicts that "the rate at which absorption would take place would be so slow . . . that Earth would survive for billions of years before any harm befell it."
Strangelets–fragments of strange matter–have the potential to convert ordinary matter to strange matter, but the research concludes that it is extremely unlikely strangelets could be produced at the LHC.
According to the review, any hypothetical objects created by the collider would be equivalent to ones that are created without physicists' help, by the effect of cosmic radiation on Earth and other local bodies. Since cosmic rays–and earlier colliders, like the the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in New York–have not destroyed the Earth, odds are the Large Hadron Collider won't either.
[Via arXiv.org]
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Comments
That is true even if it was stable it would take too ong for ti to gain enough force for there to be soon problems. There are also many of these microscopic black holes in the atmoshpere especially the upper lecels.
the.nerd.herd.group.googlepages.com
1 out of 2 people found this comment helpfulNo problem, belive me, the LHC cannot harm the planet.
0 out of 1 people found this comment helpfulI hypothesize that black holes are not possible, based on my
analysis of the origins of gravity and inertia, they have natural
limitations. See cosmicdarkmatter.com
I hope it gets up and running and starts collecting data soon. I've got alot of POP$ on this in PPX.
1 out of 1 people found this comment helpfulso if we could aim it could we give aliens cancer?
also the title says that it probably won't, i sure hope it doesn't, iron man would have to finally teem up with spider-man to stop it just before so that we would have a massively deformed earth.
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpfulfrom Virginia Beach, VA
I think that even the possibility of these problems turning up. Are hugely outweighed by things we will learn from it. so bring it on....
1 out of 1 people found this comment helpfulAwesome video on YouTube "You Prefer Your Collider": youtube.com/watch?v=A1L2xODZSI4
Have you read CERNs SPC Committee's Safety Report disclaimer?
"this argument relies on properties of cosmic rays and neutrinos that, while highly plausible, do require confirmation"
(indico.cern.ch/getFile.py/access?contribId=20&resId=0&materialId=0&confId=35065)
So... Dr. Rosser might still be correct: "...after 50 months the earth to a centimeter would have shrunk"
More at LHCFacts.org
1 out of 1 people found this comment helpful