After billions of dollars and years of construction, the world’s largest particle accelerator finally has a date with destiny
Posted 08.07.2008 at 5:17 pm
8 Comments
Muon Chambers
The Atlas Experiment
If you’re one of the few people who still believes the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) could accidentally destroy the world, I’d recommend you get your affairs in order before September 10th. CERN, the European physics agency that oversees the LHC, has announced that the proton beam in the world’s most powerful collider will be turned on for the first time this September.
To turn on the giant particle accelerator, scientists will spend months activating and testing various aspects of the machine. The process began in July, when researchers activated the cooling system that keeps the proton beam at 1.9 degrees above absolute zero. In August the researchers will begin synchronizing the particle accelerator’s eight sectors with the proton injector that generates the beam. Then, after a week of diagnostics, the LHC will power up for the first collision.
The first collision will be at 0.45 TeV, with the beam eventually working its way up to a 5 TeV beam. The accelerator will reach peak performance and begin collisions at 14 TeV sometime in 2010. Additionally, there is a proposed upgrade for the LHC planned for 2018 that will produce brighter, more powerful proton beams.
Ed note: still confused about how the LHC actually works? Might be easier to understand in rap form!
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Of course, if it does destroy the world, it won't matter what state anybody's affairs are in!
from London, middlesex
The LHC is going to provide physicists with a new view of our universe, helping them develop our view on the universe and its existence.
It's a win-win situation either way...
We all die, which means nobody's unhappy, being dead and all.
Or, we get a new view of the universe.
The end of time will occur in 2012 at the end of the Mayan calendar and this scientic experiment has as much a chance as nuclear war at being the reason. Sir Issac Newton also believed that time would end in 2012, gaining his insight from extreme studies of the bible.
www.InfectedMinds.com
I heard the thing broke. Does anyone know when it will be back online?
Wait a second the thing isn't even operational, and the are already proposing an upgrade. Must be a government project...oh wait it is. I thought this was supposed to be the be-all-to-end-all collider, now your telling me we could have a had a better one, I feel ripped-off. When this one doesn't find anything, if we survive, I bet they will try selling the rest of us the line: "Well if we had one twice the size we could find the particle that forms the particle, inside the particle, and name it after my aunt Flow"
Seriously once we find out that prove/disprove string theory, then what can we use this thing for? Somehow, I think making microwavable popcorn in 1/2 nanosecond would get old.
from fontana, ca
could it be, that it didnt break but that something else may have happened? could it possibly throw the earth off its axis and change the way the earth rotates kind of like a lopsided ball? imagine a very large magnet, the earth has a north and south magnet i dont know but a magnetic device of that size and caliper has never been constructed before thats what it is is a huge magnet more or less
The idea is that using the Earth as a shield, that the magnetic containment for the beam will not cause undue weakening of the magnetosphere. So, built underground. Other problems could be rising from under foot over time.