WORLD!
Wait...wait. I'm still here. Are you? Yes?
Just in case you missed it, the LHC was (indeed!) turned on this morning at 9:30 (local time.) And, just for the record, we're still here. For those who know what this photograph shows, here is proof of the event:
That was a picture taken by a camera. Here's the screenshot:
I had five bets (one bet with five different people) that the LHC would be turned on and that nothing horrible would happen.
I'm now owed a grand total of $.05 (US cents) That, and a good laugh, might get me the wrapper from a stick of chewing gum. In plainer words, I didn't expect anything bad would happen.
But there are those doom-sayers who thought that the LHC would create a black hole, or worse, a strangelet. I've written about this twice before, so I won't go into it here. Suffice it to say that even if it were to create a black hole or a strangelet, they likely wouldn't last long enough to do any damage.
You'll notice that I said "...they likely wouldn't last long enough..." You'll note I didn't say that they wouldn't. And that is because, while the odds of something horrible happening are about 1 in 50 million, that is still a not-quite-zero chance. Yes, it is possible. But I've other things to spend my time worrying about.
For instance, a 50m (metre) asteroid slamming into the Earth, or worse, air-bursting over a major city. These are called "once-in-a-century" asteroids because they come along in the order of once each century.
The last time this happened was in 1908 when an asteroid broke up over Tunguska. A link to the article is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event Had that hit, it would've wiped out a city. As it happened, it air burst over forest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_burst
As I said, this is a once-in-a-century* asteroid, so we're about due. The really really bad part is that since they're so small, our telescopes won't see them (either coming or going**)
Imagine this happening in today's geo-political climate. A NEO (Near-Earth Object) that is 51m across is coming towards the Earth. Since it's so small and so dim, both radio and 'normal' telescopes miss it.
At 06:21 local time, the object breaks up (air bursts) over New York City. In a flash, New York City is gone. Gone, folks. As in not there anymore.
What do you do? Our leaders would be looking for somebody to shoot at. "We were attacked, we have to do something!" Who are you going to shoot at? You've got to shoot at somebody, right?
Now imagine our hypothetical asteroid air bursting over Tehran, Iran. They, (if there were any of them left) and the rest of the Arab world would blame either Israel or the US. It wouldn't matter that it was a NEO.
Again, since these are once-in-a-century asteroids, we're about due.
What do you do?
* - Source: Dr. Daniel Durda, PhD
** - Source: Dr. Peter Ward, PhD
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