Posted on 03/14/2021 5:38:17 PM PDT by nickcarraway
IT TRIGGERED A SUBATOMIC CASCADE — AND COULD HAVE AN AVALANCHE OF IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF PHYSICS.
Crash Course
Scientists have now confirmed that an unusually powerful particle of antimatter crashed down into Antarctica back in December 2016.
The collision seems to have triggered a subatomic cascade effect called Glashow resonance, Live Science reports, which is a theoretical phenomenon that requires more energy to set off than even the most powerful particle accelerators can provide. Scientists didn’t expect to see tangible evidence of Glashow resonance, but now that they have it helps further confirm the Standard Model of subatomic physics.
Slow and Steady
It took over four years for researchers affiliated with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica to confirm the Glashow resonance, according to the study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
But that’s nothing compared to how long scientists have been waiting to spot the bizarre phenomenon. Live Science notes that Stephen Glashow first came up with the notion of the subatomic cascade back in 1960 and that it’s been a matter of pure theory that whole time.
Flash Physics
The actual cascade of Glashow resonance involves an antineutrino — or even a regular neutrino — crashing into an electron with so much energy that it produces a comparatively-large particle called a W boson.
Doing this requires the extremely-tiny antineutrino to carry 6.3 petaelectronvolts, or the amount of energy of 6.3 quadrillion electrons accelerated by a single volt. That’s the same, Live Science calculated, as 6,300 mosquitos traveling at one mile per hour — or one mosquito traveling 8.2 times the speed of sound.
That’s 450 times the energy that the Large Hadron Collider is expected to produce after it’s done being upgrade, Live Science reports, meaning scientists are left waiting for these bizarre, rare phenomena to happen on their own in nature.
“6,300 mosquitos traveling at one mile per hour “
Doesn’t sound like much energy.
Definition of Stupid
1a: slow of mind : OBTUSE
b: given to unintelligent decisions or acts : acting in an unintelligent or careless manner
Need I say more????
What’s really mind blowing is that the neutrino may have travelled across the entire visible universe at near the speed of light starting from the Big Bang just to smash into a random electron on a obscure planet in the middle of nowhere (Earth) and get detected by a living intelligent species made of matter that didn’t even exist when it was created. How rare is that!
Spock, analysis.
Soooo....we now just make a faster than light spaceship for a mosquito. ...
” . . . or one mosquito traveling 8.2 times the speed of sound.”
I’m pretty sure I had that s. o. b. in my bedroom one warm night last summer - never could quiet it, even when I had to resort to chemical warfare instead of standard kinetic weapons.
Most curious Captain....it appears...
We’re all gonna die!!!
“6,300 mosquitos traveling at one mile per hour”
I’ve driven through clouds of mosquitoes 10x as large on the NC coast in September.
It’s equal to 6.3 Kilo-sketters.
... and Mosquitos are the Louisiana state bird.
... and they already be faster than da speed’o’light.
ping
So, what's your take on this story...
So how do I convert that to my preferred "when pigs fly" standard?
Thanks GOPJ.
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