Monday, February 21, 2005
Black Hole Factory
Scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research in Geneva plan to make miniature black holes this year, according to a new book by science writer Arthur I. Miller. The book, Empire of the Stars, about the life of the Indian astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who proved mathematically that stars can collapse into black holes, says that the experiment is "scheduled to be carried out in 2005" by smashing protons and antiprotons. Miller says that the black holes will be million times smaller than an atomic nucleus and will have the mass of a proton. Looking ahead, Miller writes that scientists at the Large Hadron Collider, also at CERN, "are already talking about 'black hole factories,' in which they hope to produce a black hole a second." The LHC is currently under construction and is scheduled to be completed in 2007. With circumference of 17 miles (27 kilometers), it will be the largest collider on earth.
Apparently, there's no need to fear that Switzerland will be sucked into a supermassive singularity with the rest of the planet in tow. Such mini black holes are supposed to be highly unstable and will immediately evaporate. According to quantum mechanics, empty space is frothing with matter and antimatter particles which pop in and out existence, so called quantum foam. But near a black hole one of the matter-antimatter particles can pulled inside the hole by its gravity and the other escape. According to Einstein, the fugitive particle removes energy from the black hole.
When the black hole is tiny this mechanism removes its entire mass in a fraction of a second. The evaporated black hole leaves behind a flash, so called Hawking radiation, predicted by the British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Miller writes that studying the flash may allow physicists to "pry open information about how black holes are formed as well as the structure of the space on the tiniest level."
Let's hope that Messrs Einstein and Hawking got their equations right.
Apparently, there's no need to fear that Switzerland will be sucked into a supermassive singularity with the rest of the planet in tow. Such mini black holes are supposed to be highly unstable and will immediately evaporate. According to quantum mechanics, empty space is frothing with matter and antimatter particles which pop in and out existence, so called quantum foam. But near a black hole one of the matter-antimatter particles can pulled inside the hole by its gravity and the other escape. According to Einstein, the fugitive particle removes energy from the black hole.
When the black hole is tiny this mechanism removes its entire mass in a fraction of a second. The evaporated black hole leaves behind a flash, so called Hawking radiation, predicted by the British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Miller writes that studying the flash may allow physicists to "pry open information about how black holes are formed as well as the structure of the space on the tiniest level."
Let's hope that Messrs Einstein and Hawking got their equations right.
