In 2012, a team was operating the biggest particle collider in the world. They then discovered the Higgs boson particle, which is key to understanding how the universe was created. The particle was nicknamed the “God particle.”
The European Organization for Nuclear Research has a facility called CERN. It’s a research center that contains the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is the biggest particle collider ever made. Scientists at the LHC are now trying to prove the existence of a substance called dark matter. Dark matter is believed to make up about 27% of the universe. It is thought not to absorb, reflect, or emit light, so it is very hard to detect. Researchers say that dark matter is real because they have observed the way its gravity pulls on objects that are visible. Also, scientists have seen how dark matter can “bend light.” Joshua Rudermann is an associate professor of physics at New York University, and he said, “If we can figure out the properties of dark matter, we learn what our galaxy is made of.”
The Large Hadron Collider was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research to answer questions about particle physics. It is located 328 feet under the ground inside a tunnel near the border of France and Switzerland, near Geneva. It measures almost 17 miles in circumference. Inside of the collider, magnets are cooled to about minus-456 degrees Fahrenheit, which is colder than the vacuum of space. Two particle beams hurtling along at close to the speed of light are forced to collide. Researchers then examine the substances made by the collision of the particles, which have conditions similar to the “Big Bang,” the event that created the universe. Since 2019, engineers have been enhancing the huge collider so it can detect more data and run faster.
Now, as the Large Hadron Collider is put back into use, it can run at 13.6 trillion volts, and it can continue to run complex experiments such as those that scientists hope will finally prove the existence of dark matter.
Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1657469905951x897264529099337400/CERN%20researchers%20turn%20on%20Large%20Hadron%20Collider%20in%20dark%20matter%20quest%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
The European Organization for Nuclear Research has a facility called CERN. It’s a research center that contains the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is the biggest particle collider ever made. Scientists at the LHC are now trying to prove the existence of a substance called dark matter. Dark matter is believed to make up about 27% of the universe. It is thought not to absorb, reflect, or emit light, so it is very hard to detect. Researchers say that dark matter is real because they have observed the way its gravity pulls on objects that are visible. Also, scientists have seen how dark matter can “bend light.” Joshua Rudermann is an associate professor of physics at New York University, and he said, “If we can figure out the properties of dark matter, we learn what our galaxy is made of.”
The Large Hadron Collider was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research to answer questions about particle physics. It is located 328 feet under the ground inside a tunnel near the border of France and Switzerland, near Geneva. It measures almost 17 miles in circumference. Inside of the collider, magnets are cooled to about minus-456 degrees Fahrenheit, which is colder than the vacuum of space. Two particle beams hurtling along at close to the speed of light are forced to collide. Researchers then examine the substances made by the collision of the particles, which have conditions similar to the “Big Bang,” the event that created the universe. Since 2019, engineers have been enhancing the huge collider so it can detect more data and run faster.
Now, as the Large Hadron Collider is put back into use, it can run at 13.6 trillion volts, and it can continue to run complex experiments such as those that scientists hope will finally prove the existence of dark matter.
Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1657469905951x897264529099337400/CERN%20researchers%20turn%20on%20Large%20Hadron%20Collider%20in%20dark%20matter%20quest%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
