What are the chances that a particle collider's strangelets will destroy the Earth?

[Jane Louise]

With the LHC starting up again at full power in 2015. This article appeared in one of my news feeds.

Thought I'd share with those of you who are interested and would love to hear your views.I am not responsible for any scaremongering as this is being posted everywhere but after all the interest with the LHC thought it would be a good subject to disscuss!

 

http://phys.org/news/2014-02-chances-particle-collider-strangelets-earth.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[A.J]

no chance Jane

[Jane Louise]

Lower energies rather then higher energies could cause this so they say. I was a little scared of all the hysteria of when the LHC started up. What with the scare mongers saying that it would create a black hole etc. but I then lightened up to it. Now this has started to become public and now I'm beginning to wonder again. Why do you feel there is no chance AJ?

[Yarmy]

High energy particle collisions go on all the time in our upper atmosphere and have done for as long as there's been an atmosphere. We're still here.

[A.J]

Lower energies rather then higher energies could cause this so they say. I was a little scared of all the hysteria of when the LHC started up. What with the scare mongers saying that it would create a black hole etc. but I then lightened up to it. Now this has started to become public and now I'm beginning to wonder again. Why do you feel there is no chance AJ?

A Strangelet is a hypothetical particle containing an equal amount of up, down & strange quark, and which has never been observed in nature, that's the key point, and even then it would have to have a negative charge to interact with its surrounding sub atomic particles. The particle is theorised to be inheritantly unstable and will decay to lighter up & down quarks.....At least that's the general concensus across the particle physics community