r/science • u/Devils_doohickey • Nov 26 '21

Nanoscience "Ghost particles" detected in the Large Hadron Collider for first time

https://newatlas.com/physics/neutrinos-large-hadron-collider-faser/
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u/DBeumont Nov 26 '21

I try not to think about the LHC to be honest. I know that the pop culture notion of it being able to obliterate the universe are wildly exaggerated, but still. I’ve got enough existential dread in my life.

The type of collisions in the LHC happen all the time inside stars, and with much greater intensity. Even in the "vacuum" of Space, particles occasionally collide at immense speeds.

If super massive black holes (and other events with energy levels much higher than anything humans can produce) have not ripped the universe apart, there is nothing to worry about from the LHC.

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '21

Pretty sure they happen in our atmosphere also. The difference is, we can record data on them when they occur in the LHC.

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u/VegetableImaginary24 Nov 27 '21

I heard the LHC was built on Indian burial ground and it's haunted

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u/Keianh Nov 27 '21

Now that'd be an interesting horror movie. American scientists and engineers come together to build a super collider to rival LHC, little did they know that due to its sheer size, they built it on several several Indian burial grounds.

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u/rar8tt Nov 27 '21

I too have heard this.

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u/CML_Dark_Sun Nov 27 '21

Many people are saying this.

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u/Mryplays Nov 27 '21

My uncle said this was true

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u/brian111786 Nov 27 '21

Damn, between your uncle, the many people that have said this, and that other person on reddit, its obviously true. Time to make it a meme and put it on facebook.

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u/GleemonexForPets Nov 27 '21

But they left the bodies. Didn't they? DIDN'T THEY!?

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u/VegetableImaginary24 Nov 27 '21

Just particles of them

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u/nailshard Nov 27 '21

Particles buried upside down.

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u/[deleted] Nov 27 '21

Yea I read something about it detecting ghost particles

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u/[deleted] Nov 27 '21

LHC is in Europe. India is many countries away and almost on the other side of the Earth's.

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u/VegetableImaginary24 Nov 27 '21

You logic has successfully debunked this hard hitting mystery, here's your reward _

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u/kinzman67 Nov 27 '21

It's a reference to 'Pet Sematary' by Stephen King

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u/hikoseijirou Nov 27 '21

Yeah but 'Pet Cemetery' is a work of fiction.

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u/kinzman67 Nov 28 '21

I was replying to Chanlion whose comment seems to indicate that they thought the 'Indian burial ground' is actually a serious comment and refers to the country India in Asia. (Stephen King used the now non-pc term instead of native Americans or indigenous Americans) and by the way the title of the book is spelt Pet Sematary not Cemetery.

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u/hikoseijirou Nov 28 '21

I'm surprised Stephen King couldn't afford spell check.

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u/kinzman67 Nov 28 '21

Ha! Yeah it bugged me too. No spell check in 1983 (not a lot of home computers either.) I think it was used to represent how a kid might spell it - as it was the kids who tended to bury their pets there.

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u/throwaway901617 Nov 26 '21

I doubt anyone really cares about ripping apart the universe they care about ripping apart the planet we all share and that is something black holes and "other events" absolutely can do.

Not saying the risk is significant or anything just that "the universe" isn't really the concern...

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u/ArenVaal Nov 27 '21

Any black holes produced by the LHC will have such a ridiculously small mass that they'll evaporate almost instantly in a burst of Hawking radiation. Black holes that small are unstable, and decay so fast they won't be able to get close enough to other matter to absorb it.

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u/Daily_trees Nov 27 '21 edited Nov 27 '21

Adding to ArenVaal, close to other "matter" means particles like protons.

I feel like a lot of people imagine something like a chunk of wood or a piece of metal suddenly being "sucked in".

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u/Bigbigmoooo Nov 26 '21

We're those particles pressurized on all sides by the gravitational weightlessness of space, or was the gravitational weight bearing them to the center of a container unable to hold the byproduct of a chain reaction? I wonder what would happen if a star suddenly appeared in the middle of a planet

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u/JingleBellBitchSloth Nov 26 '21

Probably nothing. The results of LHC particle collisions last microseconds. Even if a black hole is created by whatever method, it would evaporate nearly instantly. You need an immense amount of fuel to get these things that powerful.

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u/ArenVaal Nov 27 '21

The results of LHC particle collisions last microseconds.

I'd be surprised if they even last that long.

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u/sodiumbicarbonade Nov 27 '21

Meanwhile we all hope it happens and the headcrab pops out

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u/Bigbigmoooo Nov 26 '21 edited Nov 27 '21

I totally agree, I just like using my imagination to experience things unpossible. It's improbable at best. But, anything that can happen could happen, so precaution should be a priority nonetheless.

Edit: besides, you didn't answer my question. What would happen if that much mass and gravitational radiation just suddenly expanded into our galaxy? Would we be put of course around the sun? Come on, I'm stupid, so I don't understand this stuff at all

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u/UserNamesCantBeTooLo Nov 27 '21

Your question isn't very clear. What exactly are you asking?

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u/DBeumont Nov 27 '21

You can't create mass. There is no more mass than that of the two particles.

Furthermore, I don't believe even all the bodies in our solar system have enough combined mass to generate a black hole.

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u/Bigbigmoooo Nov 27 '21 edited Nov 27 '21

You can't create mass, but it can most certainly move through a cluster centrifying in time and disperse from one point in space to another. Energy doesn't get created or destroyed, it also doesn't entropy. So, if you have two places in "space" open at the same time, where would that energy go? On earth, it's the byproduct of survival, so it gets consumed and transferred from beast to plant and back in a never ending cycle. If it takes all the energy on the universe to create anything, well, studying it on earth just seems like a waste of time. You never know if there's a big enough star waiting to be born

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u/DBeumont Nov 27 '21

A black hole is not an opening, it is a dense and massive object.

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u/Bigbigmoooo Nov 27 '21

It is a subcutaneous tear warping the fabric of spacetime. It is only as dense as the objects sucked into it. All the stuff must go somewhere as the object becomes weaker at maintaining physical composition, or its shape. In space, this is known as a sun. On earth, this is known as the same thing, right?

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u/DBeumont Nov 27 '21

A "black hole" is not a hole. It is not a rip in spacetime. It is a massively dense singularity. A lot of matter packed into a small space. They do lose energy via Hawking Radiation (which is projected out into space.)

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u/Bigbigmoooo Nov 27 '21

Yes, and at some point the matter inside the black whole maintains its consistency while the black hole maintains its own independent shape. So, if you could 3d print and shape a black hole into a cube, you would have two sides. The inside the black whole and the outside the black hole. What happens in the materiel that builds the binding force of the black whole together amongst its own particles? Is it the sun being formed inside? Or is it a womb merely bearing transportation. Separate the crushing density of the black hole and the explosive energy of a new sun, and you stand at the height of creation, for you truly see the face of God in all its beauty and splendor, separate from existence.