This LHC is a circular tube 27km in circumference that crosses the France/Switzerland border. Protons are pumped through the tube and accelerated by magnets to 99.99% the speed of light!!! One group of protons is accelerated one way and another group is accelerated the opposite direction and then magnets are used to direct the two paths at one another so the groups collide and simulate the Big Bang beginning of our universe!!
There are several detectors throughout this tube that measure different things. The one that we toured is ATLAS and it measures all of the particles that are expelled when the protons collide. The goal is to find the Higgins Particle - the thing responsible for giving everything mass. We didn't actually get to go down and see the ATLAS detector because it is up and running and colliding protons. But we did get to see the control room where all the data is projected. It's manned 24/7 in case something goes wrong or something spectacular happens!!
Although it's kind of anticlimactic - lots and lots and lots of data over several months must be taken and then analzyed statistically to see if there's an important pattern, or whatever it is they look for!! A lot of this stuff was a bit over my head! But still cool. And rest assured, no black hole appeared to be forming....so I think we are safe!
No comments:
Post a Comment