Sunday, 10 August 2008

The CERN Black Hole

In the eastern regions of France, near Lyon, bordering on Switzerland, lays the CERN facility which houses over 6,300 scientists working feverishly to bring online the next generation in basic particle super-colliders.

This massive Hadron collider is a magnetic ring, 27 kilometers (16.8 miles) in circumference, the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. The main purpose of this facility is to produce antimatter and black holes. Many people believe that if CERN were to produce just one stable black hole, it could destroy the world.



(via Dark Roasted Blend)

13 comment(s):

JTankers said...

Abstract below from Dr. Rossler's plea to the world, copy available on LHCFacts.org.

"A nightmarish situation, that can still be hoped to be averted in time through communication within the scientific community, is drawn attention to. Only a few weeks remain to find out whether the danger is real or nothing but a mirage. After this time window is closed, it will take years until we know whether or not we are doomed. The story line has all the features of a best-selling novel. The reader is asked to contribute constructively."

Quote from Dr. Otto E. Rossler, Professor Theoretical Biochemist, visiting Professor of Theoretical Physics, inventor of the Rossler Attractor, founder of Endophysics, winner of the 2003 Chaos Award of the University of Liege and the 2003 Rene Descartes Award.

Anonymous said...

This really does scare me.

JTankers said...

If you wish to discuss your concerns, I suggest LHCConcerns.com.

kees said...

The last four billion years nature has been doing on, around and to the earth what the LHC is trying do. Only nature has been doing it with much higher energies than LHC can do.

If you're afraid of the LHC, be more afraid of nature.

JTankers said...

That safety argument has been found initially compelling by many physicists.

Several prominent physicists who do not appear to display a competent understanding of LHC Safety issues also proclaim that more powerful cosmic rays harmlessly strike Earth regularly proving safety. This argument is nonsense.

Stable micro black holes created by cosmic ray collisions with Earth would travel through Earth at nearly the speed of light, leaving the Earth unharmed. CERN’s LHC Safety Assessment Group acknowledged this in a March 2008 email.

Some percentage of micro black holes created by head-on particle colliders would travel too slowly to escape Earth.

Anonymous said...

nice video, very realistic. so yeah, we're all pretty much going to die...
just kidding. The purpose of the LHC is to reproduce conditions similar to
those in the very early universe (first few seconds). Scientists hope to
find the Higgs particle and prove super symmetry. There are some theories
that predict that there could have been billions of tiny black holes in the
very early universe, but since black holes evaporate (a.k.a. hawking
radiation) none would have
survived till present times. Black holes will not be created in the LHC and
if they were they would almost instantaneously evaporate because of their
extremely small mass. And if for some reason it did not evaporate it would
not suck the world in like the video, black holes have an event horizon
which is the distance from the black hole where the gravitational pull is
too strong for anything to escape. A super tiny black hole would not have
the gravitational potential to pull anything in, the event horizon would be
in the black hole. Electromagnetic forces would play a much more important
role.

Your Buddy

Leo

JTankers said...

Thank you Leo, that was a very good explaination for laypersons.

Do you realize how may "ifs" you used?

Combine that with the cost of miscalculating. That should be enough to require confirmation of safety arguments before collisions begin.

Then add the eminent Dr. Otto Rossler who clearly explains why micro black holes will not evaporate and will grow exponentially due to electromagnetic forces.

Other physicists have conjectured that the predicted existence of dark energy may tend to predict exponential micro black hole growth from Reverse Hawking Radiation.

I find nuclear physicist Walter L. Wagner's and Dr. Otto E. Rossler's arguments brilliant and compelling. I find CERN's safety arguments flawed and self serving.

Scientists have made the very dangerous and dubious decision to protect their "license to experiment" above all other concerns.

The situation is eerily similar to decisions made to launch the space shuttle challenger in freezing weather, dubiously theorizing safety while more logical minds loudly warned of a very real possibility of disaster.

History repeats...

Unknown said...

Two "ifs" Jtankers.

Apparently the same number as digits in your I.Q.

My research work is done with Doc R. at U of M.

Yours?

Leo

JTankers said...

Everyone is ultimately on the same team Leo. Your explainable was very good, I was not being sarcastic. My comment meant that your analysis was so well written, so clear that laypersons could understand it.

I am a software developer with some college physics back. I run a few open source physics projects: bigcrash.org and mass.bigcrash.org. This work helped me to understand early that the safety arguments may be flawed.

By the way, my IQ qualifies for Mensa, since you asked.

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
I honestly find very amusing all these supposition. The probability of creating black holes at CERN is much smaller than the probability one of the billions per sencond high energy particles coming from Sun has to create a massive black hole when hitting the earth's atmosphere or the moon surface....and the moon stands still there...

Cheers

Jacopo

Anonymous said...

Leo you talk about Hawking radiation as if it is a fact, and that because of it any low-velocity black hole produced will evaporate.

"but since black holes evaporate (a.k.a. hawking
radiation)"

Hawking radiation a theory, and one that has not been tested properly.

So these low-velocity black-holes (which will not be fast enough to escape the Earth, unlike those produced in nature) may not evaporate if the un-tested theory that is Hawking radiation proves to be false, but may instead remain in the Earth.

Nice to know that scientists are basing the safety of an experiment (which could conceivably destroy everything if their assumptions are wrong) on an un-tested theory.

Level of risk - small
Degree of risk - the end of the Universe

But then hey, if you believe in the theory of Hawkings Radiation, everything will be fine.

Cheers,

Brendan

Anonymous said...

Oh and Jacapo, the probability of the CERN experiment producing black holes is NOT as low as you say it is.

Stephen Hawing himself has said that the risk of the Cern experiment producing a black hole is 1%, that is a LOT higher than you say it is, and Hawking is very much on the side of the CERN experiment. But then he feels we are safe because of his (untested) theory of Hawking Radiation.

Nice to know that the safety of the planet is being entrusted to an untested theory which may well prove false.

Cheers,

Brendan

Anonymous said...

I dont understand why people say the blackhole would not be traveling fast enough. I really dont feel like explaining myself but plz check how fas tit will be traveling and its real dimensions. It will pose no danger even if it did not radiate away.