Researchers at CERN break “The Speed of Light”

Scientists said Thursday they have discovered particles traveling faster than the speed of light, a discovery that could overturn one of Einstein's fundamental laws of the universe. Antonio Ereditato, a spokesman for the international research team, said three years of measurements showed that neutrinos pumped from CERN, near Geneva, to Italy's Gran Sasso reached speeds faster than light, that is, 60 nanoseconds faster. 

We trust our results. "We checked and rechecked for anything that might skew our measurements, but we found nothing." "We now want our colleagues to independently verify them. If confirmed, the discovery would undermine Albert Einsteinand#039;s 1905 theory of special relativity, which says that the speed of light is a andquot;cosmic constantandquot; and that nothing in the universe can travel faster. That assertion, which has withstood over a century of testing, is one of the key elements of the so-called Standard Model of physics, which attempts to describe the way the universe and everything in it works. The totally unexpected finding emerged from research by a physicists working on an experiment dubbed OPERA run jointly by the CERN particle research center near Geneva and the Gran Sasso Laboratory in central Italy. 

A total of 15,000 beams of neutrinos - tiny particles that pervade the cosmos - were fired over a period of three years from CERN towards Gran Sasso 730 (500 miles) km away, where they were picked up by giant detectors. Light would have covered the distance in around 2. thousandths of a second, but the neutrinos took 60 nanoseconds - or 60 billionths of a second - less than light beams would have taken. "It's a small difference, but it's very important in theory," said Herditato, who also works at the University of Bern in Switzerland. "The result is so surprising that everyone should be very careful right now." Ireditato declined to speculate on what it might mean if other physicists find that the OPERA and OPERA measurements were correct. Other physicists will officially learn of the discovery on Friday at a meeting at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). He added: "I don't want to think about the consequences." "We are scientists, we work with what we know. Much of science fiction is based on the idea that time travel would be theoretically possible if the speed of the light barrier could be overcome. 

The existence of the neutrino, a fundamental subatomic particle produced during radioactive decay or nuclear reactions like those in the Sun, was first confirmed in 193 , but it still baffles scientists. It can pass through most objects undetected, even at long distances. Scientists say millions pass through the human body every day. To reach Gran Sasso, neutrinos emitted from a special facility at CERN, which also houses the Large Hadron Collider, which probes the origins of the universe, must travel through water , air and rocks. The Italian underground laboratory, located about 120 kilometers south of Rome, is the largest particle physics and cosmic research laboratory of its kind in the world. About 750 scientists from 22 different countries work there, attracted by the ability to conduct experiments in three huge chambers shielded from cosmic rays by some 1, 00 meters ( ,200 feet) of rock above the impact. What happened at CERN? Scientists say they have observed neutrinos, tiny particles smaller than atoms, moving at 300,000 kilometers per second, slightly faster than the speed of light. 

What does it mean? Einstein's theory of special relativity states that nothing can travel at the speed of light in a vacuum, because photons (particles of light) have no mass. Evidence that neutrinos, mysterious subatomic particles with smaller masses, can move faster contradicts Einstein's theory. What are the effects of a knockout? Einstein's theories are central to the Standard Model of physics, which helps explain everything we know about how the universe works, from black holes to the Big Bang. If this turns out to be wrong, everything related to modern physics and the basic laws of nature must be reconsidered. Have the results been confirmed? The results were so surprising that CERN researchers spent months validating their data before announcing the results. But they asked the American and Japanese teams to confirm the results before announcing an actual discovery. 

The data will also be posted online overnight to be reviewed by experts from around the world. Does this mean that E is not equal to MC squared? Special relativity was used to propose the theory that energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. It's too early to rule out the most famous equation of all time, but the latest results suggest that the main assumption it's based on, that nothing can accelerate beyond the speed of light, may not be entirely accurate.