XPost: misc.news.internet.discuss   
   From: here@is.invalid   
      
   New Smallest Time Measurement: How Long It Takes a Photon to Cross a   
   Hydrogen Molecule   
      
   Back in 1999, Egyptian chemist Ahmed Zewail was awarded the Nobel   
   Prize for measuring the speed at which molecules change their shape,   
   founding femtochemistry in the process. His measurements were made in   
   femtosecond where one femtosecond equals 0.000000000000001 seconds, or   
   10-15 seconds.   
      
   Now, nearly two decades later, atomic physicists at Goethe University   
   led by Professor Reinhard Dorner have calculated a process that is   
   shorter than femtoseconds for the first time ever: the measurement of   
   how long it takes for a photon to cross a hydrogen molecule.   
      
   This is the shortest timespan that has ever been measured and amounts   
   to about 247 zeptoseconds (a trillionth of a billionth of a second, or   
   10-21 seconds). To achieve this, the scientists irradiated a hydrogen   
   molecule with X-rays from the X-ray laser source PETRA III at the   
   Hamburg accelerator facility DESY. They set it up so that one photon   
   was sufficient to eject both electrons out of the hydrogen molecule.   
      
      
      
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