Lab-Made Fireball May Be a Black Hole

MoogMan writes "BBC News reports that a lab fireball may be a black hole. From the article: "A fireball created in a US particle accelerator has the characteristics of a black hole, a physicist has said. The Brown researcher thinks the particles are disappearing into the fireball's core and reappearing as thermal radiation, just as matter falls into a black hole and comes out as "Hawking" radiation." More information available from the NewScientist article (subscription required)."

Yet another milestone in my Earth Destruction Plan

[daniil]

Thanks to the devotion of my minions, I'm yeat again a step closer to fulfilling my Earth destruction plan (why am I doing this? Just for fun, you know...).

Some time ago, I had one of my minions to compose a list of possible ways of destroying the Earth [ucam.org]. Back then, he rated the "microscopic black hole plan" as follows:

• You will need: a microscopic black hole having enough mass not to evaporate instantly. Creating a microscopic black hole is tricky, since one needs a reasonable amount of neutronium, but may possibly be achievable by jamming large numbers of atomic nuclei together until they stick. This is left as an exercise to the reader.

• Method: simply place your black hole on the surface of the Earth and wait. Black holes are of such high density that they pass through ordinary matter like a stone through the air. The black hole will plummet through the ground, eating its way to the centre of the Earth and all the way through to the other side: then, it'll oscillate back, over and over like a matter-absorbing pendulum. Eventually it might come to rest at the core due to the resistance of the matter it passes through, but it'll have riddled the planet full of holes long before then. Then you just need to wait, while it sits and consumes matter until the whole Earth is gone.

• Earth's final resting place: a singularity of almost zero size, which will then proceed to happily orbit the Sun as normal.

• Feasibility rating: 2/10. Highly, highly unlikely. But not impossible.

However, now it seems that we're a step closer to accomplishing this, so i might have him revise the list.

hmm

[ClioCJS]

Does anyone else think assassins should be called in to prevent this experiment from creating a real black hole that swallows up the whole planet in minutes?

From the Article..

[blake213]

"This fireball, which lasts just 10 million, billion, billionths of a second"

Euh? Does that make it 10 million seconds?

I for one....

[2.7182]

welcome our new Kwisatz Haderach Blackhole overlord!

Re:hmm

[Rosyna]

I think professors should be called in to teach you about black holes.

By my calculations

[suso]

we should all know in about 4.2 minutes whether it is really a black hole or not. It was nice knowing all of you. Thanks for all the fish.

Human a black hole?

[fembots]

We eat everything we can find, then something else come out from the other end?

I can see it now

[dtfinch]

These tiny blackholes will fall into the core of the earth, and slowly grow one quark at a time, but at an accelerating rate. In a 100 million years or so, it'll come back to haunt the descendents of the super dolphins that'll overthrow the advanced alien race that'll conquer the robots that'll destroy us.

Same as my stomach

[dfn5]

the particles are disappearing into the fireball's core and reappearing as thermal radiation

The same thing happens when I eat at Taco Bell, but no one has claimed my stomach is a black hole.

Re:hmm

[_Sharp'r_]

If so, if we could figure out how many d6 of damage the fireball is doing, that'd give us a good clue as to the level of the caster and thus about how many hit points they have.

Useful information, you know.

uh oh

[BananaPeel]

This sounds familiar....Pass me the crowbar

Re:Yet another milestone in my Earth Destruction P

[erroneus]

Look!

I just want sharks with frikken laserbeams attached to their heads!

Man-made Black Hole?

[Anonymous Coward]

That sucks...

I wonder...

[gothzilla]

if John Titor predicted this...

Re:Is that shit running? :P

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it just me or someone else thinks that a high bishop will steal this, kill the Pope and plant it inside the Vatican ?

No problem - easy fix!

[Anonymous Coward]

We all know the only way to get rid of a black hole is to detonate a nuclear device less than 20 feet away from it. This will cause the wormhole to jump to another stargate and the world will be saved.

Re:I can see it now

[Shadow Wrought]

Dude, the mice are going to be way pissed when that happens!

I already have one of these

[Anonymous Coward]

This sounds very similar to my arse. It is dark. Particles disappear, later to re-emerge through the hole as thermal radiation, which I too have been calling "Hawking Radiation". The other guys in the lab love sending probes to "Uranus" to check it out first hand.

I For One...

[ferrellcat]

I for one welcome our new singularity overlooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....................

Jack Bauer is the only one

[hsmith]

who can save us from these "scientists" that are bent on terrorizing the world with black holes

great...

[MattW]

I'll sleep soundly tonight knowing the black hole formed in NY is "not thought to pose a threat". Very comforting.

Re:Hmmm....

[BaudKarma]

Well heck, it *could* be an Oreo. Or a vulture. Or an alternator from a '58 Chevy. Or the warm fuzzy feeling you get from doing an anonymous good deed.

Proof of Time Travel

[Linuxthess]

Here is the proof that time travel is possible; an article posted on April 1st, 2005 has taken a trip thru a blackhole and found itself on posted on March 17, 2005. If my theory holds true, expect April 5th's dupe on tomorrow's Slashdot queue.

Yawn

[howlin_walleye]

Better not get your necktie caught in one of those!

Re:NINJAS!

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone else think assassins should be called in...

I definitely vote for Ninjas. They're way cool. And as a side bonus, (1) they can move fast enough to avoid being sucked into the black hole, and (2) they can slow their heartrate to zero if the blackhole starts to pass through their bodies. With those two skills alone, they're clearly best for the job.

Here it comes...

[dauthur]

Well great. We've got in our hands the most destructive force in the universe, and we're playing with it. I hope we survive long enough so I can buy a "Anti-wrinkle black hole" for my wife some day. Or maybe a "Tonka Wormhole" toy for my kid. I don't even want to know what Barbie and barbie toys they come out with.

This technology is not a toy. May cause suffocation, asphyxiation, paralysis and may crunch you into a singulatity if you stand to close when in "action" mode.

It's funny until...

[eno2001]

...cacodaemons and imps start crawling out of your rift in the space time continuum.

There goes the planet, Sucked into a Black Hole

[Anonymous Coward]

USA, USA, USA, USA...

Obligatory Futurama reference

[Winterblink]

Hawking: I call it a "Hawking Hole."
Fry: No fair! I saw it first!
Hawking: Who is The Journal Of Quantum Physics going to believe?

Re:uh oh. Do you realize there's a real danger...

[gothzilla]

They already have. They're scrambling to pull out stuff they've already written. Predicted sequence of events:

First we'll hear about the new black hole movie

Disney will re-release "The Black Hole" on DVD

Scientists will explain that it wasn't really a black hole after all, but the major media will not pick up the story because the movie and tv series have already been started and Hollywood will lose too much money

TV mini-series comes out just before the movie

Movie comes out

Dept. of Homeland Security informs everyone that to keep safe from a black hole, buy duct tape and plastic and cover your windows.

Implications

[Lord_Dweomer]

So.....I was wondering if there are any particle physicists around that can explain what the implications of this for us wizards and sorcerors are. Is this cheaper than making a wand of fireballs? Will this enable us to cast fireball before 5th level? Will the damage dice we get to roll?

Re:Is that shit running? :P

[NanoGator]

"Is it just me or someone else thinks that a high bishop will steal this, kill the Pope and plant it inside the Vatican ?"

That would suck!

Way off topic

[Holi]

---You can't mend a broken heart by pretending it's not broken.

No that takes beer.

Don't panic.

[roman_mir]

nt.

Re:hmm

[Josuah]

And when we know how many hit points the caster has, then we'll know if Gordon Freeman can save us or not. As he's the only one qualified to shoot up a research facility.

Re:Don't panic.

[roman_mir]

that's the only sensible thing anyone's said to me all day.

Oh please...

[radish]

Did no-one pay any attention to SpiderMan 2? I mean I know Kirsten's nipples are distracting and all, but come on - it's all there!

Re:From the Article..

[Anonymous Coward]

10 septillionths of a second is close to my attention sp...OOH, shiny!

May I be the first to say...

[M.C. Hampster]

aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

*arms flailing*

Re:uh oh. Do you realize there's a real danger...

[Gilmoure]

Don't forget the SciFi channel direct to video: Anasquitto vs. Pythlack Hole!

Re:hmm

[CarlDenny]

Probably not much help, Fireball tops out at 10d6, I doubt a tenth level caster can manage "Black Hole".

"Black Hole" is 9th level, I'd guess, so the maxxed out fireball won't tell us more than we already know (that they're probably past 18th.)

Re:Yet another milestone in my Earth Destruction P

[britneys 9th husband]

This is really scary. What if Al Qaeda were to get a hold of this technology? Could they use it to achieve their ultimate mission of destroying Western civilization? Sure, they'd take themselves out too, but there would be 72 virgins waiting for them in heaven, just like there were for the 9/11 hijackers.

the greatest discovery of our species history

[Anonymous Coward]

We just discovered how all the black holes in the universe formed...

Simple

Making black holes occurs sooner in a species technological advancement than interstellar travel.

Re:From the Article..

[HTH NE1]

Interesting that the New Scientist article, in the portion of it that is free, says it "lasts as mere 10-23 seconds".

Ten to twenty-three seconds? That's a lot longer!

Turns out that they made a markup error, wrapping the "-23" with <UP></UP> instesad of <SUP></SUP>.

When reached for comment on the error, the New Scientist web editor quipped, "Whas sup?"

Re:Oh please...

[AvantLegion]

>> I mean I know Kirsten's nipples are distracting and all

*moves Spiderman 2 to top of NetFlix queue*

Where's the Kaboom?

[Anonymous Coward]

There was supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom!

So much for Illudium Q-32. Perhaps Illudium Q-33 will work.

--Marvin

wtf?

[mshiltonj]

articles are disappearing into the fireball's core and reappearing as thermal radiation

In technical terms, we call that "burning items to generate heat."

Re:Yet another milestone in my Earth Destruction P

[Sponge Bath]

...there would be 72 virgins waiting for them in heaven

I doubt that many slashdotters will make it to heaven.

I want to see!

[eander315]

Can we get a picture of this thing please? Thanks!

Re:hmm

[carpe_noctem]

I have a Ph.d, bitch. It's a Pimpin' Ho's Degree, so let me tell YOU about some black ho's!

Re:NINJAS!

[norton_I]

Turns out, anyone can slow their heartrate to zero if a black hole starts to pass through their body.

Runner-up for Least Reassuring Disclaimer Award

[The Fun Guy]

"... it is not thought to pose a threat"

I can't tell you how much better that makes me feel.

Next you're going to tell me the possibility of a resonance cascade is extremely remote and that you're seeing predictable phase arrays.

Re:Yet another milestone in my Earth Destruction P

[Schemat1c]

It was a short story in N-Space called "The Hole Man" by Larry Niven. Here karma karma, come here karma

Oh look, the karma is running away. Bye karma, bye bye karma.

Re:hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Lies!!! All lies!!!

Don't listen to him!!

He's one of those Blackholians!! :)

Re:Yet another milestone in my Earth Destruction P

[Guppy06]

"Creating a microscopic black hole is tricky, since one needs a reasonable amount of neutronium, but may possibly be achievable by jamming large numbers of atomic nuclei together until they stick. This is left as an exercise to the reader."

My God! It's every physics textbook I've ever read!

Played to the Galactic Darwin Awards audience

[Tablizer]

"World-wide catastrophe, *phfff*, don't be ridicu

Re:Yet another milestone in my Earth Destruction P

[iceborer]

If one did make it, there would then be 73 virgins waiting.

Re:Yet another milestone in my Earth Destruction P

[R2.0]

No, you just defined Hell: the 72 virgins ARE Slashdotters - all male.

Man made Black Holes ??

[kortex]

Hmmmm...wonder if they could be convinced to move their labs closer to Redmond.....

Re:Yet another milestone in my Earth Destruction P

[mmkkbb]

You just wasted a lot more than a sig's worth of bandwidth.

I really hope that this is just a joke

The bit about the evil minions didn't tip you off?

It's not my fault!

[whovian]

Prof. X: So, have you finished writing your thesis yet?
Graduate student: Uh... no.
Prof. X: And how is that?
Graduate student: Um...a black hole ate my data?

Time to leave Krypton!!

[solomonrex]

Well, this will be my final post. I'm creating a nuclear powered egg to send my child off in, then I'll retire to the South Pacific to wait for the black hole to swallow us all. I tried to warn them- I TRIED! But I can't leave now and cause a panic.

I can only hope that my son ends up on a planet where the solar radiation allows him to fly around, fighting bad guys and getting hot chicks.

Re:I want to see!

[HaveNoMouth]

Can we get a picture of this thing please? Thanks!

Don't be silly. Everybody knows you can't take a picture of a black hole. And that's the second thing that black holes and vampires have in common.

Duct Tape and Plastic, HA!

[solomonrex]

Everyone knows you just need duct tape.

The particle accelerator has 2 miles of maintenance corridors, 3 miles of wires, a 4 terabyte of data storage, and is held together with 11 miles of duct tape.

A 'Super String' was discovered yesterday in a quantum-super-electron microscope. It appeared to be a flat ribbon-like material that was sticky on one side and silvery on the other.

Quantum computer...

[kbnielsen]

Just what they needed to create the quantum computer: A mini black hole as /dev/null

what is better 72 virgins or 73 virgins ?

[dtaczalski]

If one did make it, there would then be 73 virgins waiting.

well... while 73 is a very cool prime number, i personaly find 72=2*2*2*3*3 more interesting one, becouse it can factorized in so many different ways (ex: 9*8, 6*12 2*6*6 and so on) - it can be considered as an advantege. For example you can assign your all 72 virgins into equal groups to do something - the task imposibble with prime number 73. Such a possibility can have an adventage over just having 1.3888% more virgins.

Alternatively one can argue that you can take one virgin apart to play with her in any way you want and at the sami time assign the remaining 72 virgins into some equal groups, but it puts you in the situation of choosing one over all others which brakes this beautyfull symetry of number 72.

The question "what is better: 72 virgins in the heaven or 73 virgins in the heaven" seems to be a very thoungh one.

Re:what is better 72 virgins or 73 virgins ?

[Anonymous Coward]

i think we found number 73