Scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider may have generated the hottest temperatures ever made by human beings, beating the previous record over a trillion degrees Celsius, reports Nature. Although the energy measurement has not yet been officially converted into degrees, the team announced its findings at this week’s Quark Matter 2012 in Washington, DC. According to the current best measurements, the quark-gluon plasma scientists created momentarily reached temperatures of about 5.5 trillion degrees Celsius (9.9 trillion degrees Fahrenheit), trouncing the RHIC’s record of 4 trillion degrees, which is already about 250,000 times hotter than the center of the sun.
CERN scientists may have set new man-made heat record: 9.9 trillion degrees Fahrenheit
Scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider may have created the world’s hottest man-made temperature, forming a quark-gluon plasma that could have reached temperatures of 5.5 trillion degrees Celsius or 9.9 trillion Fahrenheit.
Scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider may have created the world’s hottest man-made temperature, forming a quark-gluon plasma that could have reached temperatures of 5.5 trillion degrees Celsius or 9.9 trillion Fahrenheit.
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
The RHIC, however, is still performing important work mapping exactly how these frictionless materials phase into gasses shortly after being created. Meanwhile, the official word on whether this new material was indeed the hottest man-made one is still up in the air, says CERN spokesman Paolo Giubellino. “It’s a very delicate measurement. Give us a few weeks and it will be out.”
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