Re: CERN Atom Smasher May End the World

In rec.arts.sf.science Tim Little <tim@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On 2008-04-15, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> I don't know enough about the theory to make an educated guess about
>> numbers, but wouldn't the cores of large stars be large and dense
>> enough to slow down micro black holes moving at a significant speed?
> 
> I'd guess not.  Gravitational interaction is *incredibly* weak.
> 
> Of course, that also means that even a slow micro black hole should
> not be dangerous even if it doesn't decay.  The timescale for ramping
> up to macroscopic size should be as near to eternity as makes no
> difference.

Gravitational interaction isn't what would do it here, but simple momentum

interactions from absorbing more material.

I'm not convinced of the "large stars" stuff, but the neutron starts make 
a convincing argument to me. From what I understand they are essentially 
solid, so even a miniscule black hole hitting one should start absorbing 
things rapidly and would in a short amount of time convert the entire 
thing to a single black hole. If these things were zipping about 
constantly then there shouldn't be any neutron stars lying about.

-- 
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software