Black Hole In Big Apple

[Yuzza]

something interesting

Black Hole In Big Apple

Updated: 11:07, Thursday March 17, 2005

Don't panic but a black hole is far nearer than you may think.
Unitil now it would have taken a very long trip into outer space to see one but now scientists have created their very own black hole in a laboratory in New York.
But thankfully it was not the sort that could consume the Earth
It lasted for a tiny amount of time, a staggering 10 million billion billionths of a second.
The heat generated was 300 million times the temperature on the surface of the Sun.
Scientists used a particle accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, to shoot two beams of gold nuclei at each other at the speed of light.
The intense heat of the collision breaks down the nuclei into quarks and gluons, the most basic building blocks of all normal matter.
These particles then formed a ball of plasma which can be detected because it absorbs jets of particles produced by the collision, so creating a black hole.
Ed Shuryak, a physicist at Stony Brook University in New York said: "It's very useful in that it will inspire thinking in that direction.
"But it's going to be another thng to see if it produces any fruit."



(http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0...312730,00.html)

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Kewl

Don'tcha just love stuff like that happening. One more step towards a warp drive

[Volans]

OK...I'll admit that I have failed chemistry 3 times and in an odd way I am proud of that fact, so I need in getting an answer to the following query.

What is the weight of an atom of gold's nuclei and therefore, what would be the energy required to push that nuclei along at the speed of light?

If my memory serves me...the closer an object gets to the speed of light, its mass increases towards the infinite and therefore an infinite amount of energy is required to give it thrust.

Something in that article does ring true to me. But I'd be more than happy to be proved incorrect.

Peter.

[mickoking]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Kewl

Don'tcha just love stuff like that happening. One more step towards a warp drive

Exactly what I was thinking. Thanx for the article yuzza, fasinating

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

You're right Peter. The closer to the speed of light the greater the mass and the more energy required to "push" it faster. I'm only guessing but I'd say there might be a bit of hype in the story. I'm sure that particular line is getting discussed on numerous forums around the world right now :lo:

[robagar]

Originally Posted by Volans

What is the weight of an atom of gold's nuclei and therefore, what would be the energy required to push that nuclei along at the speed of light?

yes it's true that it would take infinite energy to push a particle with mass to the speed of light. But the new generation of particle accelerators can get pretty close, like 99.99%, and to your average journo 0.9999c is the same as c I guess.

A gold nucleus weighs in at 3.27 x 10^-25 kg. If a particle accelerator can kick it up to ~10TeV (= 0.0000016 Joules), then it will be going at 0.9998c (= 2.99x10^8 m/s). I think that's well within range for accelerators like the LHC.

Dunno whether that's enough energy to make black holes though