Is it possible, even if only a tiny pertcentage, that the particle accelerator LHC will destroy the Earth when turned on in a few months by creating a strangelet?
by 
qwerty
ANSWERS: 11
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Yes. The same sort of thing was asked about nuclear weapons. It was thought that they might cause a chain reaction and detonate the entire atmosphere of our planet. They did the blast tests anyways.
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I read that it's possible the earth will stop turning on it's axis tomorrow (only they said the sun won't come up....hahhaha)
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What is a strangelet??
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Well that is the problem - scientists don't actually know what it will create or destroy and if it create a black hole, then that will be it.
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Theoretically possible given the conversion of matter to strange matter when stranglets come into contact with normal matter producing a larger stranglet and coming into contact with more matter and so forth until the earth becomes a quark star. (as I understand it, I'm not a physicist) Assumes that the stranglet is stable enough to ever convert the nucleus of an atom to strange matter.
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I read something one of the lead scientists wrote, it explained it pretty well and went something along he lines of "The risk of that [the planet being destroyed when the machine is turned on] happening is the same as the chance to win the top prize in the lotteri each day in a week. The problem is that people think that's actually possible"
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Why worrry about the minute chances of the LHC destroying the earth, look at the news we are in danger of WW3. War with Iran and Russia seems to be brewing . I'd rather be swallowed by a big hole then face a nuclear war.
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last I heard they were having some troubles with it
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No. Events such as will be created in the LHC happen several times a day when cosmic rays hit the atmosphere. If such events could create something which would destroy the Earth, they would have done so billions of years ago.
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No it is not. The LHC will create micro-sized-black holes, but they appear as fast as they disapear, and do not have the mass to cause any damage.
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The LHC has met with a blip! It is out of action until the spring/summer.
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