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World energy record set by Big Bang Collider
by Ishita Sood - November 30, 2009 - comments
The LHC made history on Monday after becoming the most powerful particle accelerator ever
Geneva, November 30 -- Report by European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) released Monday informed that Large Hadron Collider(LHC) surpassed all records for proton acceleration after sending beams of particles at 1.18 tetraelectron volts (One TeV is roughly equal to the energy of one flying mosquito).
LHC, which is part of an experiment to unlock secrets of the universe, beat the previous record held by Tevatron particle accelerator of Chicago.
The LHC took 20 years to complete, at an estimated cost of $4.9 billion dollars.
LHC’s smooth process
The machine, which was shut down after its inauguration in Sept. 2008 due to a helium leak, was restarted again on Nov. 21.
It is built inside a 27 km-long circular tunnel and has been operating at an energy of 450 billion electron volts.
Last week, LHC circulated two beams of protons for the first time after which engineers increased its energy.
"We are still coming to terms with just how smoothly the LHC commissioning is going. However, we are continuing to take it step-by-step, and there is still a lot to do before we start physics in 2010," said CERN's director general Rolf Heuer.
Scientists hope that the protons, which travel almost close to the speed of light, create conditions like that of the Big Bang. They also expect to have a first quick look at the indefinable Higgs Boson, which is also known as The God Particle.
"Already with 3.5 TeV, we can open new windows into physics. That can already happen next year," said Heuer.
Still a lot to do
With CERN’s increasing efforts, researchers hope to create conditions like those 13.7 billion years ago when the universe was just building up.
The first full-power collision is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2010.
According to Heuer, there's still a lot to do with the LHC. "I'm keeping my champagne on ice until then,” he said.
Thus it seems that it is not a full stop for the giant research organization. The next step being planned is to enhance beam intensity since, till now, LHC was being operated with low-intensity pilot beam.
Critics of CERN, however, believe that the experiment could create black holes competent enough to destroy Earth.