Scientists have just confirmed witnessing an event that has a probability of a Trillion Times Longer than the age of the Universe!
Xenon is an incredibly stable element. And liquid Xenon, deep underground, is uniquely free of interactions with normal matter and radiation in the Universe.
Sp watching Xenon-124 is not like watching paint dry - - it’s like watching the label of the can of paint dry more … even after opening the can and using the paint inside!
Xenon-124’s half-life is 1.8 × 10^22 years (18,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), making the observation an “ultra-rare” event, according to the research collaboration. You may be thinking “If the universe is almost 14 billion years old and this takes a trillion times longer… how can we even see it at all?” and let me tell you, that’s exactly what I was thinking, too. It’s not only a groundbreaking discovery, but a mind-breaking one.
14 Billion years looks much more teeeny…
14,000,000,000 years.
versus
18,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years.
Big deal?