CERN Discovers Pentaquarks

[TristanLuigi]

This news is a day or two old, but nobody seems to have brought it up yet:



CERN has discovered a new class of particle using the LHC, pentaquarks, which have - get this - 5 quarks. Quarks are the fundamental particles that make up hadrons, which include mesons (two quarks), as well as baryons (three quarks) like neutrons and protons. As someone who wants to be physicist, this is loving awesome. Like most discoveries, there isn't really a practical application quite yet, but it's theorized that they can be formed when stars collapse, and can provide us with some information on quantum chromodynamics (QCD), which is pretty important.

Source:
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/209919-cerns-large-hadron-collider-confirms-newest-particle-the-pentaquark
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentaquark

edit: also a funny thing is that CERN described it as "an accident" that they "stumbled across"
they really weren't actually trying to look for them. what CERN is actually trying to figure out is where the forget is all the antimatter hiding

[Ad Bot]

[Freek]

this is very cool

[Mr. Hurricane]

Pluto and Pentaquarks forget yeah

[Jshotgun]

neat

[TristanLuigi]

Pluto and Pentaquarks forget yeah

this is a good past fortnight for SCIENCE

[Planr]

If we could harness antimatter we could finally get off this planet and explore space. This is a very nice news.

[Jshotgun]

If we could harness antimatter we could finally get off this planet and explore space. This is a very nice news.

we already explore space, just on unmanned missions.

[Planr]

we already explore space, just on unmanned missions.

Our current methods of exploring space are very primitive compared to how we could explore if we had an energy source powerful enough to utilize faster than light travel.

[Jshotgun]

Our current methods of exploring space are very primitive compared to how we could explore if we had an energy source powerful enough to utilize faster than light travel.

point taken

[TristanLuigi]

If we could harness antimatter we could finally get off this planet and explore space. This is a very nice news.

this has nothing to do with harnessing antimatter, unfortunately
it has to do with "hey look a nifty thing we accidentally did! maybe we'll find a cool use for it one day"

that last statement was referring to CERN's mission to figure out this

[Maxwell.]

Our current methods of exploring space are very primitive compared to how we could explore if we had an energy source powerful enough to utilize faster than light travel.

but nothing can travel faster than light

[General]

but nothing can travel faster than light

Theoretically if you travel faster than light, time would be dilated so much that it would literally be frozen for you so you just wouldn't exist.

[Bisjac]

but nothing can travel faster than light

thats just our current standard because its hard to measure > therefore find something faster.but we kinda accept that its just the placeholder equation for the time being.
and it dosnt mean much.

[Juncoph]

Theoretically if you travel faster than light, time would be dilated so much that it would literally be frozen for you so you just wouldn't exist.

hence why warp drives are the way to go

[Maxwell.]

hence why warp drives are the way to go

ha