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Hi everyone,

Does anyone know whether QGP is being produced by cosmic rays or not?
Because tonight on chat, I was told it was limited to ultra high energy cosmic rays, at best.
Under the assumption the previous statement is true, how come the LHC remains analogous to cosmic rays?
By logic, shouldn't heavy ion collisions taking place on the surface of the moon be able to produce QGP?

But anyway - thanks in advance for any reassuring information.

Cosmic rays are not only individual particles, it consists of heavier nuclei such as iron, too. So yes, assuming a collision of heavy nuclei can create QGP, it is probably regularly created by collisions of these nuclei with e.g. moon surface.

Plus there are hints (from CMS) that maybe even individual particle collisions can create QGP, too.

Thanks for the reassuring response. I'm much more calm now.

I believe you are referring to this announcement?
http://user.web.cern.ch/user/news/2010/100921.html