Yeah you read the title right… It maybe not be exactly as it sounds but it sure is cool. Read ahead to find out. It wont be disappointing, i promise.
People who read and gets fascinated about astronomy sure will feel the same about the famous “Large Hadron Collider“.
For those who doesn’t, here is a brief:
This science toy is the most famous and world’s largest particle accelerator built in a tunnel beneath the France-Switzerland border near Geneva. It is 27 kms in circumference and deep as 175 meters. This do-wikky-thing was solely built to investigate and research more about particle physics – a field in physics to study the most smallest detectable particle and understand/analyze why it does what it does(Read more about it here).
This device is used to and is still being used to understand particle physics, test theories and unveil its mysteries.
This atom smasher, as much as cooler as it sounds, if anything were to go wrong, it is deadly as well.
How deadly?
If I can answer this in a “comic” way, it would give super powers, like how Barry his speed(The Flash). But scientists say, the real life impact could be catastrophic.
Here are the likely scenarios that are being discussed:
Singularity– We all know what can a black hole do, even though we dont know what lies behind it. Imagine one being created in the middle of the street and everything getting sucked into it – eventually destroying Earth and everything around (depending upon the intensity)
Strangelet – So the definition what this means is pretty straight forward. It is a hypothetical particle consisting of roughly equal number of strange quarks that are in a bound state. If anything would go wrong with the particle accelerator, these strangelet would convert anything it encounters into a new form of matter, transforming Earth in to a hyper-dense sphere measuring just 330 feet across – the same length of just two football fields.
Phase transition – It is a simple chemical transition thing. However, this particle accelerator has the capability to rip the fabric of space by the energy emitted when the particles crash together. This would not just affect Earth, but the catastrophe would be cosmic.
These are “doomsday” type events. Thankfully, the possibility of them happening is relatively small.If you want to get more of possible scenarios like these, you gotta check out the latest book “On The Future: Prospects for Humanity” by Martin Rees. He outlines various threats to our planet, commencing from an asteroid strike to an artificial intelligence take over!
I am yet to read the book myself! But I am sure I will blog about it once I am done!
In the mean time, if you have any questions, inbox me! I will answer as I get them…. 🙂
