2 years, 2 months ago
When will the Swiss Large Hadron Collider go full power?
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M$1 Answer
Historic moment at the CERN Control Centre in Geneve, Switzerland, when the beam was successfully steered around the accelerator for the first time in 2008.
http://mediaarchive.cern.ch/MediaArchive/Photo/Public/2008/0809002/0809002_63/0809002_63-A5-at-72-dpi.jpg
On September 10, 2008, the Swiss Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest particle accelerator in the world which is regarded as the world's biggest and most powerful physics experiment, completed their first successful firing of a beam of proton particles on their 27km circuit.
But on 19 September, 2008, the operations were halted due to a serious fault between two superconducting magnets. Reparation and installation of safety features took another year. On 20 November, 2009, proton beams were successfully circulated again. On 23 November, 2009, the first proton–proton collisions were recorded. On 18 December, 2009, the LHC was shut down again after its initial commissioning run but resumed operations in February 2010, at half of the designed collision energy.
In 2012, it will be shut down for necessary repairs to bring it to its full design energy, and then it will start up again in the year 2013.
On the other hand, some predict that a giant black hole could swallow the planet if the Hadron Collider is switched on, fearing that the mini black holes created with the experiment will enlarge, becoming unstable and creating a bigger one capable of destroying the world.
Large Hadron Collider magnets.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45045000/jpg/_45045473_magnet.jpg
Hadron Collider
http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00577/SNN1013AA_280_577136a.jpg
On September 10, 2008, the Swiss Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest particle accelerator in the world which is regarded as the world's biggest and most powerful physics experiment, completed their first successful firing of a beam of proton particles on their 27km circuit.
But on 19 September, 2008, the operations were halted due to a serious fault between two superconducting magnets. Reparation and installation of safety features took another year. On 20 November, 2009, proton beams were successfully circulated again. On 23 November, 2009, the first proton–proton collisions were recorded. On 18 December, 2009, the LHC was shut down again after its initial commissioning run but resumed operations in February 2010, at half of the designed collision energy.
In 2012, it will be shut down for necessary repairs to bring it to its full design energy, and then it will start up again in the year 2013.
On the other hand, some predict that a giant black hole could swallow the planet if the Hadron Collider is switched on, fearing that the mini black holes created with the experiment will enlarge, becoming unstable and creating a bigger one capable of destroying the world.
Large Hadron Collider magnets.
Hadron Collider
source(s):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/science/05collide.html
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2009/PR17.09E.html
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2009/PR02.09E.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7632408.stm
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR08.08E.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1668971.ece
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/science/05collide.html
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2009/PR17.09E.html
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2009/PR02.09E.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7632408.stm
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR08.08E.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1668971.ece
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M$
Mass increases to infinity as the proton approachs c=speed of light. However, it does seems more likely that the particle mass will become energy or some high energy particle without mass as it approaches the speed of light because energy also approaches infinity to boost the speed. The closer to the speed of light the more likely a transformation on the particle occurs into a high energy particle.
What mass is required for a black hole to form? How fast would the particle need to accelerated to reach this mass? Can the collider achieve this percentage of the speed of light?
200 times the mass of the particle is the current limit.
Most doomsday followers are describing the black hole scenario, and as you mentioned before, it looks more like a sci-fi tale than anything else. Still, it does not stop the media concern about what kind of safety measures are the CERN scientists implementing or weather or not they know what they are doing.
As for the mass required to form a black hole? ...for now protons will be smashed by travelling at more than 99.99 % of the speed of light with other protons traveling in the opposite direction at the same speed. But, while most scientists are excited about the collisions taking place at CERN, what few people don't understand is that such collisions take place all the time on Earth, the moon, and every other part in the Solar System (and the rest of the Universe) due to the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. In other words, the experiments that people worry about at CERN have been going on during ages, at random all over the place, for billions of years, and things so far seem to be fine.
Sources:
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/04/21/will_new_collider_create_black_holes_that_destroy_us_all/