Wimpzillas (particle 1000 billion times more massive than proton) leave tracks say astronomers

New Scientist ^ | 12:30 03 June 02 | Anil Ananthaswamy

[r9etb]

Rather a confused article, I think

You mean "Enrico Fermico" wasn't his real name?

[dead]

That was the name of the company he started. 8)

[CaptRon]

I swear these guys sit around drinking coffe and making this stuff up!

[Willie Green]

I'm beginning to think that the true "wimpzillas" are
the taxpayers who tolerate the funding of this crap.

[Physicist]

But we haven't imaged the sources of the distant cosmic rays. We just catch the strays; as far as we can tell, their distribution is isotropic. Using your argument, this means that the sources must be very distant, else we would have associated them with an obvious optical source, or at least detected some anisotropy.

[Senator Pardek]

Cool - but the word sounds like the name of an open source browser or a MP3 player.

Download WIMPZILLA 1.0 now!

[dead]

Could also be an drive-time afternoon Zoo disc jockey.

[GeorgeHL]

There are 4 things this fat slob will never see 1. the correct side of any issue. 2. A limit to Big Brother powers in Wash.DC. And the other TWO are his feet!!

[GeorgeHL]

ALERT! ALERT! this is a picture of Nadzilla the monster who swallowed the Nations Capitol.

[3catsanadog]

OK, scientists if you want to call God "Wimpzillas," I can live with that.

[Poohbah]

Wimpzillas (particle 1000 billion times more massive than proton) leave tracks say astronomers

And my wife JUST mopped the space-time continuum, dagnabit! Someone tell these Wimpzillas to wipe their feet!

[blam]

"We need to send someone to see these Wimpzillas !"

If I'm chosen to go, I'll need at least a two week notice before departing.

[PatrickHenry]

A Google search on "Wimpzilla" turns up 67 hits. I've scanned a few (not a great way to absorb such material) and in this very limited form of research I've found no suggestion of a nearby wimpzilla source. The consensus, if there is such a thing here, is that they may be products of the very early universe.

[Physicist]

I've found no suggestion of a nearby wimpzilla source.

I took the "nearby source" comment to mean a nearby source for ultra high-energy cosmic rays (protons, gammas, what have you). The idea here is that the most energetic particles would be generated not by astrophysical sources, but by the (comparatively nearby) annihilation or decay of wimpzillas, which--having gigantic rest mass energies--impart huge kinetic energies to the daughter particles.

I'm still trying to figure out the argument against high-energy cosmic rays travelling long distances. Perhaps they would collide with CMBR photons, a sort of cosmic laser-cooling process. The wimpzillas themselves would be transparent to photons, and not be subject to this. Just a thought.

I sure hate the term "wimpzilla". It's as moronic as it is oxymoronic. How about a "Weakly interacting Horribly Obese Massive Particles" (WHOMPs)?

[Physicist]

OK, scientists if you want to call God "Wimpzillas," I can live with that.

Just as long as you don't mind us calculating and measuring a complete description of His properties.

[Physicist]

A Google search on "Wimpzilla" turns up 67 hits.

Googlewhack fodder. I got one on my very first try: "wimpzilla chocolate".

[Physicist]

"wimpzilla chocolate"

"unmeasurable WHOMP"

[PatrickHenry]

How about a "Weakly interacting Horribly Obese Massive Particles" (WHOMPs)?

How about BLIMPs? Bloated Lethargically Interacting Massive Particles

[Physicist]

I've found no suggestion of a nearby wimpzilla source.

You know, that's the way it always is. There's a niche market for something, and then suddenly it catches on and becomes a big fad. Then when the fad dies down, the old reliable wimpzilla purveyors are dragged down with it, and the serious consumers of wimpzillae have to drive to the next state just to get any. And of course the quality has gone way downhill.

[PatrickHenry]

And of course the quality has gone way downhill.

Ain't it the truth? Entropy just isn't what it used to be.