The next Big Bang.

[ND66]

Make sure to watch "The Next Big Bang" Sept. 9 on the History Channel.

Tuesday, September 09 08:00 PM

Wednesday, September 10 12:00 AM

Saturday, September 27 05:00 PM

The largest Hadron Collider is almost operational.

Would love to see it up close and personal like I did our Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory located in Batavia, IL.

This is Fermilab latest discovery that may as well be the last one for this facility.

As much as sad I am due to the fact of our FermiLab location will be obsolete as soon as the new collider will go online, that much exited I am to see what they can discover there. Lately, Fermilab study was concentrated on the dark matter. We know that it does exist, but nothing much past this point.

But for me personally, my fascination is at the engineering/ build level of the lab structure. Just imagine the collaboration of the whole world that’s taking place.
You’d think is simple, but take a look from this point of view:

- 27 kilometer (17 mile) long particle accelerator
- assembled from 1 meter long sections
- sections are built in facilities all over the world
- sections are build from exotic materials to prevent shrinking when cooled down to -271.25 C (-456.25 F) & seal properly with each other in order to create an “out of this world vacuum”
- those sections have to meet “out of this world clean room” requirements assembly

Fore sure they’ll be able to create a “black hole” environment when experimenting, no one just know yet how long will they last or how big will they get…

[ND66]

More pics HERE: and on their web sire HERE:

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[Nowhere]

@micro black holes - they will form only if certain assumptions/extensions to the Standard Model are correct.

BTW, now is as good time as any to participate in LHC@home BOINC project; while it usually doesn't have work units, lately there were few batches of exceptionally long ones, last one just after first injection of beams into a section of the collider.

[ND66]

And here is a pick of that 1 meter long core piece of assembly.

Those big round sections in pick #2 are sections containing several of these assembled core pieces surrounded with superconducting magnets, wiring and cooling housing.

[Dr Mordrid]

Hey guys;

before the strangelet soup devours you make sure you post pics

[ND66]

...



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[Gurm]

I'm with the people suing to stop this entire project. While I think it's an awesome thing to build, turning it on can only lead to bad bad BAD BAD things.

"Micro"-Singularities... are BLACK HOLES. I don't care what you call them, they're BLACK HOLES. They have INFINITE DENSITY. They CONSUME ALL MATTER. Guess what's made of matter? Oh yeah... THE EARTH!

[az]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

[Jammrock]

I'm with the people suing to stop this entire project. While I think it's an awesome thing to build, turning it on can only lead to bad bad BAD BAD things.

"Micro"-Singularities... are BLACK HOLES. I don't care what you call them, they're BLACK HOLES. They have INFINITE DENSITY. They CONSUME ALL MATTER. Guess what's made of matter? Oh yeah... THE EARTH!

Well, if we're all dead tomorrow because of the French, I mean because of the LHC, it was good knowing you all

[Gurm]

*sigh*

Wait, we won't die until they fire both beams. When is the two-beam test scheduled?

Also, I have been reading some physicists claiming that these microsingularities "self destruct" and emit radiation.

I propose that if what they're making is NOT black holes, that they stop saying that what they're making is black holes. They should just pick a different name. Call it "mini explositrons" or "subatomic universal decay points" or something.

Seriously.

[Nowhere]

You know, it isn't even certain at all that black holes exist - they might be ECOs (eternally collapsing objects) or Gravastars or dark energy stars. Plus - all black holes emit radiation, it's just that the rate in small ones is, comparatevilly to their mass, much higher due to low surface to mass ratio.

That said, external properties are pretty similar in all cases.
(but this means, in the case of objects the size of the ones produced by LHC, that they're harmless)

PS. Please tell me this is the case where you're not serious

PPS. First collisions are scheduled for second half of October.

[ND66]

...When is the two-beam test scheduled?

Not sure...

The LHC is the world's most powerful particle accelerator, producing beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine, and around 30 times more intense when it reaches design performance, probably by 2010. Housed in a 27-kilometre tunnel, it relies on technologies that would not have been possible 30 years ago. The LHC is, in a sense, its own prototype.

Starting up such a machine is not as simple as flipping a switch. Commissioning is a long process that starts with the cooling down of each of the machine's eight sectors. This is followed by the electrical testing of the 1600 superconducting magnets and their individual powering to nominal operating current. These steps are followed by the powering together of all the circuits of each sector, and then of the eight independent sectors in unison in order to operate as a single machine.

By the end of July, this work was approaching completion, with all eight sectors at their operating temperature of 1.9 degrees above absolute zero (-271°C). The next phase in the process is synchronization of the LHC with the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator, which forms the last link in the LHC's injector chain. Timing between the two machines has to be accurate to within a fraction of a nanosecond. A first synchronization test is scheduled for the weekend of 9 August, for the clockwise-circulating LHC beam, with the second to follow over the coming weeks. Tests will continue into September to ensure that the entire machine is ready to accelerate and collide beams at an energy of 5 TeV per beam, the target energy for 2008. Force majeure notwithstanding, the LHC will see its first circulating beam on 10 September at the injection energy of 450 GeV (0.45 TeV).

Once stable circulating beams have been established, they will be brought into collision, and the final step will be to commission the LHC's acceleration system to boost the energy to 5 TeV, taking particle physics research to a new frontier.

[Gurm]

Holy Crap

OH S H I T. Lookit here:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/09/terrible-news-gordon-freeman-spotted-near-large-hadron-collider/

[Gurm]

What I think we all have to ask ourselves is:

[Nowhere]

@Freeman - see, we're safe, they are prepared for all circumstances