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Canadian Researchers Create Supernova In-lab
Erebus42 writes "Canada has done something neat. Apparently researchers at the University of British Columbia have created supernova in their ISAC (Isotope Seperator and Accelerator), transmuting sodium 21 into magnesium 22. Spiffy."
Canada has done something neat.
Christ, how many dollars is the new coin worth this time?
--saint
The world has enough Sodium 21. It's about time someone started converting all that crap to Magnesium 22.
I Heart Sorting Networks
"Canada is now leading the world in the field of nuclear astrophysics.
;-)
"We have bragging rights."
Finally... I was wondering when we would.
void women (int money, time_t time);
"Nova" Scotia should have known better!
THere seems to be wuite a bit of bragging in the article, but I guess that is to be expected. Something big like this sounds like it took a lot of effort, so these guys were psyched. Can't say as I blame them.
But it does kindof worry me that Canadians ccan now create there own elements at will. What is to prevent them from creating tons and tons of gold and flooding the gold market? Or How about creating their own Plutonium. Uh oh, I think Canada just got the bomb...Or Carbon. If canada can create it's own Carbon, what can keep them from creating diamonds and flooding the diamond market. And Carbopn is the basis for life. they can create their own stem cells. George Bush ain't going to be happy about that one...Wait, I just relized this means they can create their Hydrogen. My god, they cancreate their own sun. My god, Canada must be stopped.
Congrats goes out to these guys.
Open Source Identity Management: FreeIPA.org
..Canadian shield proves ineffective.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
What has this to do with stars exploding?
I mean, yes, this is a nuclear reaction that occurs in supernovas, but it's only one of many. If you come to my house and I sell you a book, I have not recreated Barnes and Noble in my study.
Still, it's a cool trick.
--
E_NOSIG
It will never cease to amaze me that there is this army of trolls just lying in wait to come up with the stupidest, most knee-jerk, ignorant and uninformed comment on damn near anything withing moments of its appearance. There's almost a sort of genius to it...
Unfortunately it's a really stupid, useless sort of genius.
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
But the next thing ubc wants to do is ignite the "supernova".
:)
Next for the lab is what Shotter describes as one of the thorniest problems for nuclear astrophysicists, duplicating the reaction of the isotope oxygen 15, which is believed to be the spark that ignites nova explosions and x-ray bursts.
What can I say, America better not try and invade...
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It's a huge stretch to say this is the first man-made supernova. Maybe it's the first man-made r-process nuclear reaction, but that's a far cry from a supernova. The reaction they've reproduced involves trace elements, not the iron/nickel that are really important in a SN.
Basically, a SN happens when a massive star has converted all of its core fuel into iron by nuclear fusion. The star's gravity compresses and heats the iron until it can fuse also. However, iron is the most tightly bound element, so fusing iron nuclei doesn't release heat energy, it removes it. The thermal pressure that was holding up the star's core disappears in a fraction of a second, and the whole thing comes crashing down in a huge implosion. The implosion causes the core material to form a neutron star or a black hole, and the rebounding shock wave blows the rest of the star apart.
Doesn't sound much like what they did. I don't mean to downplay their achievement; it's still very impressive. I'm just lamenting the sorry state of most science reporting...
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
Lots of things could end up in Osama's hands. Let's ban hands altogether.
Where's the guy who makes the joke about other people asking about Beowulf clusters of supernova's?
-
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
I guess I'm not catching the real significance of this "achievement". What was the theory? What was this experiment attempting to prove or disprove? Were they just showing off how fast they could accellerate protons??
Proclaiming that their proton beam somehow creates a miniature nova seems like a ploy to attract attention (and funding, of course).
but aren't supernovas the cause of black holes?
Not necessarily. The immense amount of forces that are involved in a supernova create conditions that allow black holes to form. All you really need for a black hole is enough heavy matter in small enough space.
It's like this... When planets and even small stars form, the electromagnetic force is enough to keep individual atoms from crushing each other. You can't push electrons any closer.
Stars who die without becoming any bigger become white, and eventually black dwarfs.
In larger stars, after they ignite, the nuclear force-- the constant fusion reaction-- is enough to do the same thing. Once that fusion reaction shuts down, however, the atoms begin to collapse, increasing density and pressure until the heavier atoms are able to fuse.
If a star this size goes nova, the electrons and protons collapse, leaving neutrons. The neutron matter will hold up to a certain point under the force of gravity. AP's correct me, but I think it's the electroweak force that is responisble for this resistance.
If a star dies at this stage, you get a neutron star.
If a star is very, very massive... Think blue giants... Even the force that keeps the neutrons from crushing eachother is not enough to overcome the force of gravity. The neutrons collapse under their own weight into an infinitly small point and the space around the singularity warps until the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light.
I'm certain what we all know that singularity + event horizon = black hole.
Despite the fact that the researchers were creating the same kinds of reaction that occurs in the latter period of the death of a star, they simply weren't dealing with the kind of mass necessarly to create a black hole. Even if scientists *did* manage to create enough pressure to force matter to collapse into a singularity, it would evaporate away into Hawking radiation almost instantly. You don't just need the singularity to keep a black hole, you need to have it be massive and keep feeding it to keep it alive.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
In a parallel breakthrough sure to rock the physics world to its very foundations, Tsar has created a mini black hole in his ISAC (Incredibly Stinky, Ancient Cubicle), causing light to bend uniformly around a point approximately six inches above his desk. The feat was accomplished by using a sample of very pure silicon-based substance called "glass", which was ground and shaped to form what is, in effect, a solid "lens".
Ultraviolet light generated by an ionized gas was then used to excite a flourescent coating on the interior of a nearby cylinder, creating visible light which was reflected by the surface of a technical document placed precisely in its path. The light was then directed through the "lens" to produce the light-bending effect commonly seen only around supermassive objects such as black holes and galactic superclusters.
Tsar's next ambitious project is to create a miniature expanding multiverse by blowing up several balloons for a staff New Year's party, the expense of which will likely be covered by the piles of grant money expected due to the unqualified success of the LENS experiment.
Disclaimer: I'm all all for the advancement of science, but why do we have to use hyperbole to make it seem interesting, or valuable? Maybe if everyone stopped claiming to have created supernovae or black holes or the core of a star or the moment of creation, we could get to a point where dull, devoted, brilliant researchers who didn't minor in drama can still get funding for their worthy efforts. (This is not a plug—I'm not a researcher, and I'm vastly overpaid as it is.)
Why, here in Canada, we've not only created a supernova but in fact a whole 'mirror universe'. Although virtually identical to the US in most ways, in this 'twin world' the dollar is almost worthless, the politics are leftish, measurements are conducted in a rather strange "metric" system, the minority language is French rather than Spanish, and people manifest love for their nation by violently asserting a profound lack of patriotism.
As near as I can tell, the real universe split from its when the war of independence failed to happen, although it could also have something to do with the invention of poutine.
Interestingly, since prime-time television programming has apparently not yet been invented in this timeline, this alternate universe is almost completely dependent upon its mate for non-drama, non-Prince-Edward-Island-themed broadcasts. Thus, while the existence of a 'shadow -universe' may come as a shock to all of you in out there in the real one, citizens of this other realm have known about your universe for quite some time. They've been watching you! They don't wear goatees, but they all seem to wear mustaches! Avoid replacement by your evil twin: Destroy Canada today!
- undoware.ca