• Question: will a black hole ever occur in CERN???

    Asked by hepworthandsimmons to Mario, Sam on 19 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by vickeryflower, palmerdix, theyoungone2.
    • Photo: Sam Vinko

      Sam Vinko answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Possibly. If it does, it will be very small and quite harmless though, so no worries.

    • Photo: Mario Campanelli

      Mario Campanelli answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      so far no black holes. if gravity becomes strong at low energy, as some theory that nobody believes suggest, a black hole could be created at the LHC, but it would decay immediately, so it would be completely undistinguishable to the untrained eye to the 40 millions collisions we produce every second.

Comments

  • Photo: Ben

    Ben commented on :

    This appeared as a ‘related question’ when I was answering a different one, and since I’m at CERN I thought I’d answer too.
    It is possible a black hole could be created at CERN, but it’s very unlikely.
    Technically it would occur if two protons manage to get closer to each other than their ‘Schwarzschild radius’
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_radius#Formula_for_the_Schwarzschild_radius
    However, if this ever happens then the black hole that would be created wouldn’t be dangerous.
    Black holes can evaporate, and the smaller they are the faster they evaporate. Any black holes created at CERN would be so small that they would evaporate almost instantly, and would certainly never be able to swallow anything up and cause any damage.