|
Friday October 23, 2009
|
Get ready to duck (again). The Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator, has now reached an operating temperature of 1.9K--colder than outer space itself, according to Ars Technica.
That means the LHC will soon be ready to begin crashing particles together, after a catastrophic failure and series of repairs over the past year took the accelerator out of commission.
The current prognosis is that the LHC will begin operations sometime in the next five weeks. It will accelerate particles at speeds very close to the speed of light. In effect, they'd run around the 16.7-mile length of the accelerator over 11,000 times per second, the report said. That necessitates the accelerator contain a vacuum that's an order of magnitude less dense than the moon's atmosphere. In other words, this is tough stuff, so let's give those guys a break about that whole catastrophic failure thing. (Image credit: CERN)
|
|
|
Mixx It
Digg It
Stumble
More...
October 23, 2009 1:45 PM
Breathlessly waiting for the 1st test results. Doug.
October 23, 2009 2:31 PM
Even a lay person cannot help but be excited about the possibilities of new discoveries which this device may reveal. This is the most exciting experiment that I have ever followed. The possibilities seem almost endless for advancing science.
October 23, 2009 3:35 PM
So. Cool. (no pun intended, but 1.9 kelvin is pretty damned cold!)
I'm looking forward to some of the first experiments. :D
October 23, 2009 5:50 PM
It will fail again Oct. 22-23. 2009
October 23, 2009 6:46 PM
I remember this from last year, so in about 3 weeks all the idiots will be saying "omg end of the world!" seriously, its proven it works, well, breaks and doesn't kill us all, good luck to cern anyway, personally the money could be spent on something more worthwhile tbh...
October 23, 2009 9:49 PM
we may never know what we will discover, but this is one of the most amazing machine ever constructed. i hope they do well and no more jinx. i cant wait to hear when collision has been done.
October 24, 2009 7:39 AM
To my mind the LHC is t h e experiment in the history of physics, which lacks sufficient
theoretical preparations - looking on all what could happen. As one can read, Fermi,
Teller, Oppenheimer and Compton knew in 1945 of a global risk
following the first atomic explosion - a
risk-value up to 3 in one million was discussed, ony internally. Now, the risk is officially
announced to be a zero value - for the next billions of years;
but there are certain doubts that all was done to investigate
the risk properly.
October 24, 2009 11:39 AM
It seems that everyone is eagerly awaiting for the first burst when the H atoms colide. You may be getting what you deserve. As there is much concern as to what will equate they are not exactly sure. But this one thing we can count on: Matter is not destroyed nor created. It is just changed. The amout of matter from creation is the same today. We have certaily moved it around over the centuries and changed it shape from gas to solids but trying to fine the G-d Factor is not in reach of mankind. If black holes are formed, regardless of size I do not think they will sizzle out. Instead, well you thinks of the things that could be happening. Man has had the ability to destroy itself for a long time. It does not need be a Nuclear Holocost. Perhaps something bigger will possibly happen within the next month or so. G-d help us all as man stumbles upon the unknown.
Gad Kedar
October 24, 2009 1:40 PM
if they want particles traveling at the speed of light why not use a beam of light itself? light consists of photons, after all!!! seriously tho, doesnt anybody ever worry that someday scientists will go too far and destroy us all? maybe not the collider but what about research being done with virus, agriculture, genes etc.
October 24, 2009 2:13 PM
Where it's true to consider that element of risk that exists in any new venture, even as irresponsible as it would be to trigger some unforeseen disaster, it is conversly (or perversly, depending on your point of view}just as irresponsible not to try to explore new frontiers.
October 27, 2009 1:30 PM
Frank, You're on to something here! Flashlights! Better yet, they could secure TWO flashlights onto some contraption like a stick, and point them at each other. And then the scientists would very scientifically turn on the flashlights causing the photon beams to collide. To record the event they could position a camera on some kind of a three-legged camera holder and take a series of pictures to record the collisions.