Key Takeaways

­Strange matter , as scientists call it , is undisputedly weird . It ’s unlike any matter onEarth . For one , it ’s overweight than our matter , but that ’s just the beginning . Our dear thing is get up . It ’s made of atoms , which contain nuclei packed with protons and neutrons . Indeed , ourquarks , which are basic particles , stay neatly packaged inside the proton and neutron . But in strange matter , there are no edge ; it ’s just a lump in which the quarks run amok , roaming top to bottom and end to end .

Did we observe that strange matter is n’t known to survive anywhere in the creation ? That ’s an of import contingent . Physicists add up up with the idea of foreign matter in the 1970s when they wondered what would happen if proton and neutron were squished superhumanly hard [ source:­Freedman ] .

­Let ’s repeat a exchangeable version of their theoretical experimentation , imagining we have an Fe atom , plus a piston able to splash it with enormous force . By press the core of the ironatom , we tote up energy to its 26 protons and 30 neutrons . If we press severely enough , the proton and neutrons will burst apart into what they ’re made of : small corpuscle calledquarks . We ’ll then have a pickle of quarks – the character of quarks called " up " and " down , " which have sure masse and are the only kind found in issue on Earth . Squishing even more , we ’ll stress the up and down quark cheese so much that some change their identities . Some will get a raft large and becomestrange quarks . Our familiar iron atom will be long break . We will have squished it into an equal commixture of up , down and unknown quark – in other parole , into astrangelet . A strangelet is a pocket-size piece ofstrange topic .

Physicists found it too resistless not to keep playing with strange matter . They enquire what would happen if they unfreeze the atmospheric pressure on the newly made hypothetical strangelet . Would it forthwith transmute back into the neat Fe corpuscle ? Edward Witten of the Institute for Advanced Study suggested maybe the strangelet would quell around . In fact , maybe it would be more unchanging than the atomic number 26 atom or any matter on Earth .

On the next page , our story will turn from strange to scary .

Can Strange Matter Attack Me in the Street?

Could strange matter be onEarthnow ? Physicists have considered it . They ’ve try out ourwaterand other matter , incur nothing . They ’ve considered the possibility of make strange matter in molecule accelerators like theLarge Hadron Collider , since it could slam atomic nucleus together hard enough to knock the quarks out of theatomsand potentially exchange some of them to strange quarks . But safety reviewers concluded that atom accelerators create so much heat that they would evaporate potential strangelets . The likelihood of create foreign matter in a speck accelerator would be as low as take a shit " an ice cube in a furnace , " the reviewers concluded [ source : Ellis ] .

Physicists have also look at whether unknown matter could exist in space . They ’ve forbid the idea that it could ’ve been made in the former universe and stay around [ source : Farhi ] . They ’re disbelieving of it being made by heavy mote , which are hurled through space by red astrophysical processes , hitting other heavy molecule in the process [ source : Jaffe ] .

Edward Farhi , an MIT physicist who researched strangelets , thinks the most likely place to find strange matter is inneutron stars . These collapsingstarscompress their Interior forcefully . " At the heart and soul , you have density and pressure sensation big enough to form strange issue . If unusual subject formed in the core , it would corrode its style out and consume the whizz , " says Farhi . Underneath its crust , the star would become a lump of strange matter , or astrange star . If two unknown stars clash , they could send strange matter lurch toward Earth , says Farhi .

­How could strange matter be dangerous ? Under special circumstances , it " eats " other matter . In social club for this to come about , the strange matter has to be more stable than the matter it meets and not repel it . If those conditions are met , the other matter will " want " to commute to foreign topic , and liaison between the two will get thing going . The final result would be an ever - growing ball of unusual matter , burning through matter like a fireball .

For such a disaster scenario to fall out on Earth , foreign matter would have to persist for more than a fraction of a 2nd at earthly press , and we do n’t know if it can do that . It would also have to be negatively charged .

In fact , potential strange affair would probably be positively charge , articulate Farhi . And since the matter on our major planet ( including us ) has positively charged nuclear nuclei , it would repel strange matter . " If you had a little lump on the board , it would just ride there , " aver Farhi .

The scenario would change if unusual thing were negatively charged , and a ballock of it was madly rolling around on Earth . " You would in all probability bed it because it would be rise and take in everything at its boundary line , " says Farhi . Attracted to your nuclear nucleus , the ball of foreign affair would breastfeed you in , and you ’d be wind up . Kind of like a modern - day incarnation of the Blob .

­Have you counted the " ifs " we ’ve thrown at you so far ? If strange topic existed in blank , if it were hurled at Earth , if it were stable at the pressures in space and on Earth , if it were more unchanging than our subject and if it were negatively charged – it could turn you into a lump of unruly quark . So no , you probably should n’t be afraid of unusual matter , but it ’s fun to believe about .

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