Briefing room (continued)
Big meteorites traverse our solar system with a typical speed of about 30 km/sec. If such a meteorite enters the Earth's atmosphere, its energy of movement is converted into heat, reaching 100,000 Co or more and melting most of its material ('shooting star').
We do not have the technology to make a space ship go at the speed of light (300,000 km/sec), but it is possible - using accelerators at CERN - to make single particles (like a proton, the nucleus of a hydrogen atom) go that fast.
If a particle moving with this speed hits a block of material, its energy is also transformed, producing 'temperatures' of 10,000,000,000,000 Co or more. Under these extreme circumstances, the energy set free in the collision will transform into matter.
But: what kind of matter do I produce in such collisions?
