Will new collider create black holes that destroy us all?

How does smashing sub-atomic particles in an accelerator produce black holes?

According to wiki. "A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon."

So I'm guessing, blackholes must have a lot of mass to generate so much gravity. Well, sub-atomic particles aren't very heavy. So how does smashing sub-atomic particles in an accelerator produce black holes?

I know these sub-atomic particles will be accelerated to near light speed before they collide. Does it have anything to do with mass increases as it approaches the speed of light?

Sorry for the dumb questions

reply to post by styxxz


They are hoping that this will produce something similar to the big bang, on a very very very smaller level. In turn they say there is a possibility this will create black holes. (simple answer)

kdial1: Thanks for the answer, though I was under the impression that the whole point was to create mini black holes.
Apparently, these mini BHs don't last very long. They theoretically evaporate almost immediately, by analysing this evaporation process "Hawking's radiation" scientists are hoping to discover what the conditions were like just after the Big Bang.

There is a greater than zero chance of total universal annihilation from this project.

There's also a greater than zero chance that by the time I put a period on this sentence, I will have destroyed the earth with a single exhale.

Ahhhhh. nope.

Folks, there's no such thing as absolute zero percent chances in science.

Well it's simple to understand that there is no real threat.

I believe that the people who want this program stopped simply because of that minuscule threat are people who don't actually understand the subject they are arguing.

It's ok though, because there will always be people more afraid of something that will never affect them than something that actually does.

Shattered OUT...

reply to post by styxxz


It’ll just be proton scaled black holes.

· Micro black holes (also mini black holes) have masses much less than that of a star. At these sizes the effects of quantum mechanics are expected to come into play. There is no known mechanism for them to form via normal processes of stellar evolution, but certain inflationary scenarios predicted their production during the early stages of the evolution of the universe. According to some theories of quantum gravity they may also be produced in the highly energetic reaction produced by cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere or even in particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider. The theory of Hawking radiation predicts that such black holes will evaporate in bright flashes of gamma radiation. NASA's GLAST satellite, to be launched in 2008, will search for such flashes as one of its scientific objectives.

Source

It is theorised that those micro black holes do occur naturally when high speed protons originating from outer space, collide with the upper atmosphere.

The base for the scientists to not worry is a not proven theory called Hawkins radiation that theorises that a black hole radiates energy, thus has to evaporate in time when it is not able to feed in before burning up it's fat ass The masses for accelerator black holes are so small that they would be gone the instant they’re created. This only when a not confirmed theory is true. When it is not, the created micro hole will be earthbound, unlike the ones created by cosmic radiation, an able to feed thus grow eventually into one hell of a news item.

Doomsday scenario

Well one can speculate all the way to the moon and back. Lets just wait what the machine will produce. It is being prepared to do it’s trick rather soon.




LHC cooldown status


I can’t wait for them to do some big banging!

reply to post by D.Wolf


Thanks for the info D.Wolf
It seems there are other ways to create black holes on earth.

Laser makes black holes

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland, Feb. 14, 2008 -- Imagine being able to peek inside a black hole and even perform experiments there. It may not be as far-fetched as it sounds, thanks to a team that claims to have simulated a black hole’s event horizon in the lab.

Link to source

Well that is not totally correct them creating an actual black hole. It merely simulates the effects of an event horizon. It’s somewhat the same as having a browser simulating a commodore 64. Al the futures of the C64 are there but the actual C64. There are no tapes, no 5-1/4 floppy disks no 20 year old brown bread like keyboard to rattle on. It probably wont be the real deal. But it gives you an idea of what a C64 was capable of. click joystickport 1 downright corner When opening a game and use arrows/ctrl to play the it. Sound is f@cked up (at least over here)

The laser induced black hole just features the software without the hardware. There is no gravity well sucking crazy scientists into oblivion, just something to study what the real deal might look like.

Great find though. Mighty interesting read.

Yes, you are correct. Good analogy with the c64 simulator (actually got one for my mobile phone).

When I originally read that article. I got it in my head that they were creating a black hole’s event horizon, despite the fact the article states they have simulated a black hole’s event horizon in the lab. Oops, feel a little silly now