Lab fireball 'may be black hole'

BBC news ^ | BBC

[djf]

A fireball created in a US particle accelerator has the characteristics of a black hole, a physicist has said.

It was generated at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in New York, US, which smashes beams of gold nuclei together at near light speeds.

Horatiu Nastase says his calculations show that the core of the fireball has a striking similarity to a black hole.

His work has been published on the pre-print website arxiv.org and is reported in New Scientist magazine.

When the gold nuclei smash into each other they are broken down into particles called quarks and gluons.

These form a ball of plasma about 300 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. This fireball, which lasts just 10 million, billion, billionths of a second, can be detected because it absorbs jets of particles produced by the beam collisions.

But Nastase, of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, says there is something unusual about it.

Ten times as many jets were being absorbed by the fireball as were predicted by calculations.

The Brown researcher thinks the particles are disappearing into the fireball's core and reappearing as thermal radiation, just as matter is thought to fall into a black hole and come out as "Hawking" radiation.

However, even if the ball of plasma is a black hole, it is not thought to pose a threat. At these energies and distances, gravity is not the dominant force in a black hole.

The RHIC is sited at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

[Andy from Beaverton]

[Termite_Commander]

I think you're onto something...

[American Quilter]

Now how cool would it be to have a Meson cannon that shoots small singularities at targets ? :)

Where can I buy one?

[steve86]

Some day an anti-Higgs Bosun will pop up and punch them in the nose.

[dirtboy]

The real reason it is safe is that the evaporation effect from Hawking radiation is so fast that it dissolves before it becomes a threat.

Let's just hope that Hawking didn't forget to carry the two, or else we have itty-bitty black hole down in the earth's center now. Which would produce the mother of all real-estate bubble pops.

[Termite_Commander]

Eeek! A fiery thing made of pixels!

[Little Pig]

What, you mean accidentally open a dimensional portal to Hell? No thanks.

[GeraldP]

>>>However, even if the ball of plasma is a black hole, it is not thought to pose a threat. At these energies and distances, gravity is not the dominant force in a black hole.

Adding to the usefulness of an elusive theory of quantum gravity. If we could understand gravity at the quantum scale, we should be able to calculate at what scale a black hole becomes dangerous, n'est pas?

[djf]

LOL, smack them silly, eh?

[oldleft]

Not Bruce Willis, but Chuck Norris could!

[Termite_Commander]

Answer: A black hole becomes dangerous when you can fit into it.

[azhenfud]

"When the gold nuclei smash into each other they are broken down into particles called quarks and gluons."

An accurate description of another research project funded by taxpayers. They're running a bit low on gold - can Ft Knox spare a bullion or two?

[Termite_Commander]

Are you referring to Quark Gluon Plasma, by any chance?

[oldleft]

Question:

If we could ever really control when, where, and the size of black holes would it open up things like interstellar travel and teleportation? Or are the gravitational forces exerted by bending space too great to be useful?

[phatoldphart]

How does a black hole go away? Where does it go?

[Uncle Miltie]

We're all gonna die!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[hosepipe]

I refuse to believe anyone can measure time in those increments..
10 million, billion, billionths of a second... puleeese..

[Pyro7480]

Lt. Commander Data could save us. All we need is some antimatter!

[6SJ7]

Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.

[mikrofon]

Now if they were colliding lead particles to create gold, that would be OK...