Scientists have determined how long is the shortest event ever measured before
A scientific team from Germany was able to measure how long it takes for the shortest event and found out how long it takes a photon of light to cover the distance in length of one molecule hydrogen.
And it turned out that this event occurs in about 247 zeptoseconds. And how little it is and how the measurement took place, I will now tell you.
A second is eternity in the microcosm
The microworld is full of secrets and mysteries, primarily because all processes there are incredibly fast. Therefore, for us, a second that means practically nothing can turn out to be an incredibly long (almost eternal) time.
After all, chemical bonds are formed and destroyed in the microcosm in femtoseconds. And this is for a minute, just a quadrillionth of a second.
But in recent decades, scientists have learned to measure such fleeting events, and the latest research has propelled scientists even further.
A new record-breaking dimension of scientists
The carried out new measurement showed that a femtosecond is already quite slow. And, as it turned out, a photon needs a time equal to 247 zeptoseconds to cover a distance equal to the diameter of one hydrogen atom.
To understand the transience of this time: one zeptosecond is 1000 times shorter than a femtosecond. And on the scale of one second, it is one sextillion part of it, or 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 0001 seconds.
It turns out that there are as many zeptoseconds in one second as there are seconds in 31.7 trillion years. And this is 2365 times more than the age of our Universe.
Such a unique measurement was carried out by employees of the Goethe University in Frankfurt, the DESY accelerator, and the Fritz-Haber Institute.
For the sake of fairness, it must be said that these scientists have already measured the events occurring in zeptoseconds. So back in 2016, they also found that after a photon collides with a helium atom, it takes 850 zeptoseconds before electrons are ejected.
But the new dimension was immediately 3.4 times shorter than the previous record.
How was the experience
In order to set a new record, scientists irradiated a hydrogen molecule with X-rays at a fixed energy level. As a result, the emission of a pair of electrons was recorded.
By measuring the parameters of electrons, scientists were able to figure out how long it took for a photon to reach first the first and then the second hydrogen atom in the molecule.
And as it turned out, the photon takes about 247 zeptoseconds to do this.
Scientists have also found that the electron shell in a molecule does not respond to photons instantly and everywhere. And a temporary pause occurs due to the fact that information inside the molecule propagates exclusively at the speed of light.
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