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Thursday Nextreme

Melinda Morang gets all technical 1
Whoa! Technical atom-tronic cyclometric stuff warning - I don't know what she's talking about, but it sounds seriously impressive. I'll let Melinda explain it all to you:

"..1st picture: Today we're bombarding Thursday with X-treme Energy! The Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory just outside of Chicago, Illinois, USA, is one of the most powerful X-ray machines in the world. The intense X-ray beams produced by synchrotron radiation from accelerating electrons are used for a wide variety of purposes, from probing material structure to watching digestion in insects.

Shown behind me is part of the experiment hall. The little white hut in the center is a typical example of an experiment room in which samples and such things are placed. Energy = 7 GeV (7 x 10^9 electron volts)..."
Melinda Morang gets all technical 2
"..2nd picture: Currently the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, USA, sends protons and antiprotons zooming around a 6km ring at nearly the speed of light before smashing them into each other, allowing physicists to discover and examine mysterious fundamental particles. Jack Spratt's daughter would be proud.

The building in the background is Wilson Hall, designed by and named for Fermilab's first director who was an architect and sculptor as well as a physicist. Underneath the flowers and grassy lump behind me is part of the accelerator itself. Sadly, the Tevatron isn't particularly picturesque. Energy = 2 TeV (2 x 10^12 electron volts)..."
Melinda Morang gets all technical 3
Whoa! Technical atom-tronic cyclometric stuff warning - I don't know what she's talking about, but it sounds really impressive. I'll let Melinda explain it all to you:

"..3rd picture: Despite the incredible energy of Fermilab's Tevatron, it pales in comparison with the capabilities of "our violent universe," in which supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei, and all sorts of other exotic astronomical objects bombard space with particles and photons of unbelievable energy. The array of four VERITAS telescopes in Amado, Arizona, USA, detect the Cherenkov light created when very high energy cosmic gamma rays enter the earth's atmosphere, allowing astrophysicists and cosmologists to study astronomical processes and the history of the universe.

Here I am reading peacefully in the focal point of Telescope 2 because I like to admire my reflection whenever I can tear my eyes away from the page. Energy = no known upper bound. The telescopes can detect up to 50 TeV..."

Melinda Morang

To go back to the Thursday Next X-treme 2006 nominations page, click HERE.

To go to the 2005 nominations page, click HERE.