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Scientists clock the fastest interval of time in 'zeptoseconds' - NBC News
Oct 19, 2020 57 secs

Scientists have measured the shortest interval of time ever recorded, clocking how long it takes a particle of light to cross a single molecule of hydrogen.

The scientists said they used a single particle of light, or one photon, to jostle the electrons free.

When the photon hit the hydrogen molecule, it ejected one electron first and then the second quickly after, akin to skipping a pebble across the surface of water, they said

“Since we knew the spatial orientation of the hydrogen molecule, we used the interference of the two electron waves to precisely calculate when the photon reached the first and when it reached the second hydrogen atom,” Sven Grundmann, a Ph.D

From start to finish, it took 247 zeptoseconds for the photon to cross the hydrogen molecule, though there is some variation depending on how far apart the atoms in the hydrogen molecule are when they’re hit by the photon, according to Grundmann

“We observed for the first time that the electron shell in a molecule does not react to light everywhere at the same time,” Reinhard Dörner, a professor of atomic physics at Goethe, said in a statement

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