Second Coming Of The Neutrinos; Will Modern Physics Hail?

In September, a bunch of Scientists at OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus)  sent sub-atomic particles, called neutrinos from Switzerland to Italy and found it to reach the destination slightly faster than light. By slightly, they mean 60 nanoseconds. A very slight margin indeed but if it was found to be accurate, the theoretical limit by Einstein is exceeded making the theory of relativity wrong. Hence, a second experiment was conducted this month and the results challenge everything.

#-Link-Snipped-#

The first time around, when the neutrinos were sent, they were a little longer in length, measuring around ten nanoseconds. This increased the margin for error. And in a case where the laws of physics are at stake, even a tick of clock makes a huge difference. The second experiment was organised to foolproof the results. This time, new beams of length not more than three nanoseconds were used with  gaps of 524 nanoseconds between them, and yet the results are the same.

If you ask, is there no scope for errors now? There might be, still. Though an extraordinary level of verity has been maintained by the Scientists, test measurements are yet to be confirmed from elsewhere in the world. Also, the clocks at CERN and Gran Sasso may have a slightly different time due to gravitational time dilation.

If neutrinos are indeed faster than light then this puts Einstein's theory of relativity in doubt.  Relativity explains that distance and time can change when seen from different perspectives. A sub-atomic particle traveling faster than light puts the theory in doubt. All that said, nobody has really challenged Einstein's theory yet. A final word is yet to come. Maybe after that, we could discuss time travel.

Article Source: #-Link-Snipped-# Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#

Replies

You are reading an archived discussion.

Related Posts

Microsoft has now officially announced that Kinect will be available for desktops and TVs by 2012. Given the success Microsoft has had after the launch of Kinect so far with...
Early this year Kingdom holding, the company headed by Prince Al Waleed bin Talal, announced their plans to build a skyscraper that will surpass height of the present tallest skyscraper...
Graphene, also called as the “wonder material” owing to its never ending list of applications, has yet another one lined up in this list. It can be used along with...
A brief blog post that was released by Google, introduces the new incremental garbage collector (GC) in Google Chrome's upcoming version. The new Garbage Collector (GC) is said to improve...
Soon Africa would be connected to three other continents, North America, South America and Europe, by fiber optic cables by the new Atlantic Ocean undersea cable project. This project will...