3 ms·

I looked this up, and according to the most entertaining source I found (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nHBGFKLHZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nHBGFKLHZQ

by dlss 10y ago

I looked this up, and according to the most entertaining source I found (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nHBGFKLHZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nHBGFKLHZQ) the result of a tiny blackhole would basically be a gigantic nuclear explosion (it would evaporate rather than continue forming) -- so a big problem immediately, but not one that would prevent me from reading about it here in the US.

aardvark179 10y ago
Yes, if physics behave accordingly the way we expect it would evaporate almost immediately, but it would be a tiny explosion because they'd only be a tiny amount of energy there in the first place. The more fun version would be where black holes do not evaporate, at which point it will still be a very long time before it's a problem, we need to worry about Andromeda crashing into our galaxy and the sun becoming a red giant first.
- foobarian 10y ago
  That kind of timescale often makes me wonder, how do we know there aren't millions of tiny black holes all throughout the planet slowly growing?
  - ferrari8608 10y ago
    We don't, but I haven't seen any around.
    - zymhan 10y ago
      Maybe they're just hiding in the dark. Or maybe they are the dark.
  - manarth 10y ago
    And pertinently, if there were, is the timescale fixed, or are there externals events that might speed it up? The Sun's dying and will become a red giant (about 5 billion years to go), but it's luminosity is currently increasing, so our rock will become a scorched Earth in around a billion years. Then there's the potential for meteors, climate-change, antibiotic resistance, or millions of tiny black holes to do us off first (how quickly do black holes grow, anyway?) Colonising other planets and other solar systems seems the only viable solution to the long-term survival of the human race.
adrianN 10y ago
It can only explode as much energy as you put in though. The particles the LHC collides don't have all that much energy.

by dlss 10y ago

aardvark179 10y ago

Yes, if physics behave accordingly the way we expect it would evaporate almost immediately, but it would be a tiny explosion because they'd only be a tiny amount of energy there in the first place. The more fun version would be where black holes do not evaporate, at which point it will still be a very long time before it's a problem, we need to worry about Andromeda crashing into our galaxy and the sun becoming a red giant first.

foobarian 10y ago
That kind of timescale often makes me wonder, how do we know there aren't millions of tiny black holes all throughout the planet slowly growing?
- ferrari8608 10y ago
  We don't, but I haven't seen any around.
  - zymhan 10y ago
    Maybe they're just hiding in the dark. Or maybe they are the dark.
- manarth 10y ago
  And pertinently, if there were, is the timescale fixed, or are there externals events that might speed it up? The Sun's dying and will become a red giant (about 5 billion years to go), but it's luminosity is currently increasing, so our rock will become a scorched Earth in around a billion years. Then there's the potential for meteors, climate-change, antibiotic resistance, or millions of tiny black holes to do us off first (how quickly do black holes grow, anyway?) Colonising other planets and other solar systems seems the only viable solution to the long-term survival of the human race.

adrianN 10y ago

It can only explode as much energy as you put in though. The particles the LHC collides don't have all that much energy.