CERN's New Particle Accelerator Promises Window on Big Bang
Published:
25 July 2004 y., Sunday
Scientists probing something as big as the origins of the universe sometimes need equipment to match. At the European nuclear research center CERN in Geneva, they're building the most powerful particle accelerator ever. The Large Hadron Collider, as it's called, is expected be able to recreate the conditions that existed at the time of the Big Bang, when the universe was born. Scientists say they hope the new tool will help them unravel the mysteries of matter and energy, and confirm or demolish existing theories.
Contrary to what its name implies, the Big Bang was not necessarily an explosion. Scientists consider the Big Bang to be more of a marker to note that the universe had a beginning. It is the moment in which the universe, space and time were created. CERN Physicist Richard Jacobsson says scientists do not know why or how the Big Bang occurred. But big particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider help them to understand the process.
When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is completed in 2007, the superconducting magnets in the machine will operate at 271 degrees, just above absolute zero. However, Mr. Jacobsson says that the temperature created in the proton-proton collisions will be one billion times hotter than at the center of the sun.
Some 6,500 scientists from more than 80 countries currently collaborate on hundreds of ongoing experiments at CERN. The world's biggest particle physics laboratory is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Šaltinis:
voanews.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
The European Commission announced today the award of three of the six contracts for the procurement of Galileo’s initial operational capability.
more »
Wednesday this week, the State University of Kaliningrad got its own EuroFaculty.
more »
As much as 30 percent of new students of the Russian language at Finnish universities speak it as their mother tongue.
more »
Education is the most important factor creating a civil society. How is Lithuania creating its society? This is a short review on educational system.
more »
Two more former secret police in the Baltic states have been found guilty of Stalinist-era crimes against humanity and sentenced to prison.
more »
Girls and young women in the US are dissuaded from pursuing careers in the high-tech industry by violent electronic games, dull programming classes and the public image of the IT industry as a "nerdy", antisocial wordd.
more »
...The children played here long before the building of the Egyptian pyramids.
more »
A great Santa Claus isn't born - he's made.
more »
The UCLA link to free scholarship Web sites Tavia Evans hardly knew what the Internet was, let alone how to use it, until her junior year of high school.
more »
Chancellor attacks Oxford admissions.
more »
A new Web site aims to connect people with continuing education opportunities, making it easier to find the appropriate courses faster and with less hassle.
more »