Hey Space Placers!
For us in the Northern Hemisphere, happy fall; for our Southern Hemisphere readers, happy spring! Today is the change of seasons....
Physics as we know it may be in for a stunning change as well if the results from a two year CERN experiment hold up. CERN scientists ran 16,000 neutrino beam tests and found that they arrived 60-billionths of a second sooner than they should have. In other words these fundamental atomic particles with little mass travelled FASTER that the speed of light. If this holds up through confirmation by other experimental teams, especially Fermi Lab in Chicago, we will experience a revolution in modern physics unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes.
This would be a change of our perception of the Universe on the scale of that discoverde by Copernicus, Newton, and yes, Einstein. It would undermine the central tenant of how matter and energy interact and act in our Universe.
Carl Sagan once stated, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof". This is an instance in which his words ring true. It will require careful confirmation by duplicating the results in order for this possible discovery to sytand.
Read More About It: http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110922/full/news.2011.554.html and
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/us-science-light-idUSTRE78L4FH20110922.
Sky Guy in VA
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