Researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, are firing up the Large Hadron Collider for a third time, hoping to find another historic discovery, known as dark matter.

Ten years ago, CERN discovered the key to understanding the creation of the universe, naming it the “God particle”. After three more years of upgrades and changes, the Large Hadron Collider is ready to try and collect data again— This time about proving the existence of the mysterious substance, dark matter.

Dark matter has never been seen or created, but scientists still believe that it exists. The Large Hadron Collider is the scientist’s biggest chance of proving its existence.

“If we can figure out the properties of dark matter, we learn what our galaxy is made of,” said

Joshua Ruderman, associate professor of physics at New York University.

All the stars, planets, and galaxies only make up 5 percent of the universe’s mass. Dark matter

makes up twenty-seven percent of the universe. It does not absorb, reflect, or emit any light.

Making it extremely hard to detect or find.

As CERN scientists are starting to get ready to use the Large Hadron Collider again, they say

that if they do not discover dark matter in the next four years, they still have upgrades in the

works.

The Large Hadron Collider is known for discovering mysteries of the universe, but will it be able to take on its hardest challenge yet?