As has been announced, Large Hadron Collider (the most essential scientific research project) launch has been delayed until October 2008.
Quote from wikipedia:
The initial particle beams are due for injection in August 2008, and the first high-energy collisions are planned to take place after the LHC is officially unveiled, on October 21, 2008.
It feels like managing 27km. long magnets with temperature below 1.9 Kelvins is not the simplest task.
Here is how CERN describes the LHC and what it can do:
Micro black holes
Some theorists and members of the general public have long voiced fears that microscopic black holes may appear as a result of the experiment, capturing surrounding matter and ultimately leading to the destruction of the entire planet.
However, scientists have consistently dismissed these allegations as “ridiculous” - even if a microscopic black hole did form, they say, it would only last for a fraction of a second. However, scientists have consistently dismissed these allegations as “ridiculous” - even if a microscopic black hole did form, they say, it would only last for a fraction of a second.
The largest machine in the world…
The precise circumference of the LHC accelerator is 26 659 m, with a total of 9300 magnets inside. Not only is the LHC the world’s largest particle accelerator, just one-eighth of its cryogenic distribution system would qualify as the world’s largest fridge. All the magnets will be pre‑cooled to -193.2°C (80 K) using 10 080 tonnes of liquid nitrogen, before they are filled with nearly 60 tonnes of liquid helium to bring them down to -271.3°C (1.9 K).
The fastest racetrack on the planet…
At full power, trillions of protons will race around the LHC accelerator ring 11 245 times a second, travelling at 99.99% the speed of light. Two beams of protons will each travel at a maximum energy of 7 TeV (tera-electronvolt), corresponding to head-to-head collisions of 14 TeV. Altogether some 600 million collisions will take place every second.
The emptiest space in the Solar System…
To avoid colliding with gas molecules inside the accelerator, the beams of particles travel in an ultra-high vacuum – a cavity as empty as interplanetary space. The internal pressure of the LHC is 10-13 atm, ten times less than the pressure on the Moon!
The hottest spots in the galaxy, but even colder than outer space…
The LHC is a machine of extreme hot and cold. When two beams of protons collide, they will generate temperatures more than 100 000 times hotter than the heart of the Sun, concentrated within a minuscule space. By contrast, the ‘cryogenic distribution system’, which circulates superfluid helium around the accelerator ring, keeps the LHC at a super cool temperature of -271.3°C (1.9 K) – even colder than outer space!
The biggest and most sophisticated detectors ever built…
To sample and record the results of up to 600 million proton collisions per second, physicists and engineers have built gargantuan devices that measure particles with micron precision. The LHC’s detectors have sophisticated electronic trigger systems that precisely measure the passage time of a particle to accuracies in the region of a few billionths of a second. The trigger system also registers the location of the particles to millionths of a metre. This incredibly quick and precise response is essential for ensuring that the particle recorded in successive layers of a detector is one and the same.
The most powerful supercomputer system in the world…
The data recorded by each of the big experiments at the LHC will fill around 100 000 dual layer DVDs every year. To allow the thousands of scientists scattered around the globe to collaborate on the analysis over the next 15 years (the estimated lifetime of the LHC), tens of thousands of computers located around the world are being harnessed in a distributed computing network called the Grid.
The info is taken from CERN’s official site about the LHC here.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
im too younge to be sucked into a black whole
fuck
…I’m split, is this good that we get another few months or bad because we got ourselves worked up over it and it got delayed
Prepare for unforeseen consequences.
they’re waiting for you in the test chamber
Hey,
There would be no “unforeseen consequences” - if it wasn’t under control, it wouldn’t be paid for anyway.
It’s just science and emulations - if black holes acquire - they would last no longer than a few milliseconds, there’s no time for sucking up the Earth.
Yeah what could possably go wrong scientist’s know exactly what there doing,besides it cost billions.Oh hang on what about chernobyl did’t they know what they where doing there to.That went acording to plan didn’t it.
Chernobyl went off because the workers werent trained enough for the job, also the radioactive dustcloud broke loose because those damned commies tried to save money on building reinforced walls and other safety units. In nowadays, when we are using new type of reactors, accidents are bound not to happen. Its safe. Dont compare Chernobyl with LHC. Period.
And IF some of the really bad particles form a stable state, we would die faster than you could even notice that, but it wont happen.
Go LHC!
It’s not that they weren’t trained for the job, afaik, they were the best Soviet engineers bound by regime to go forward no matter what “theoretically” could happen, therefore we saw what we saw - and yes - the radioactive cloud that spread as far as USA east coast.
And LHC is more stable that’s right - it’s aim is not the world domination.
“In nowadays, when we are using new type of reactors, accidents are bound not to happen. Its safe. Dont compare Chernobyl with LHC. Period.”
Do your homework before you open your mouth, these “geniouses” already made a gigantic miscalculation and destroyed, nay, shattered one of their magnets due to a design flaw that was undetected by everyone since the original drafts were made. This is not something to take lightly. Anytime there is human involvment there is a large chance for human error. We are fucked. Don’t forget about Murphy’s law.
We are already in the black hole!!!!! Seriously - can anybody say for sure that we are not????
^ dude. Do you even know what the hell a blackhole is?
Yeah you would be like 1 pixel size and 1 tonne weight…
Well, technically, at the center of most galaxies is a black hole, but it’s dormant and won’t consume anything.
And, you guys need to remember that the assumption that the black holes will only last a few seconds is based on the theory Hawking Radiation, an unproven hypothesis with several assumptions that are pretty much based on… nothing. On the other hand, while the theory is based on no real evidence, Hawking is hailed as one of the greatest physicists. So there are valid arguments on both sides.
The bottom line is that nothing of this caliber has ever been attempted. It’s possible that we’re wrong. It’s possible that matter is not meant to travel at this speed. Personally, I take comfort in the thought that, in the end, all of this quantum physics and all of this insanely complicated math and all of these theories and all of this talk boils down to one thing:
We’ll either die, or we won’t.
poetic
why whoever said that the center is dormant it’s not i watched this thing on the history channel about the universe it siad it is a huge monster black hole oh choas and consuming anything
We’re fucked. Plain and simple.
they will start to launch lhc in spring 2009
Now the problem is the 30 tonnes transformator that broke soon after accelerating particles (few days after September the 10′th). Fixing it will take about 2 months but the CERN ebters energy safe-mode during the winter and that’s why the experiments will continue in later Spring.
Leave a Comment