$8 Billion Black Hole Machine

Timberlake

Thursday, September 18, 2008

We have been continuously trying to figure out the answers to the hardest questions out there. Questions like, “How did the universe form? Where did everything come from? How did nothing turn into everything?” It’s questions like these that intrigue our curiosity. Between the Franco-Swiss border, about 100 meters underground, lies what is today the latest, greatest scientific tool we’ve put together. Its purpose is to help us answer these unchallenged questions. This particle accelerator, known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will revolutionize our knowledge from deep within atoms to the vastness of the universe.

This machine will send two tiny particles to near light speed and have them collide with each other to recreate a microscopic version of the Big Bang. According to expert physicists, this experiment will finally tell us how matter is formed.

The collider tunnel is a huge circle containing two adjacent parallel beam pipes that intersect at four points. Two beams of subatomic particles called 'hadrons' – commonly known as protons or neutrons – will travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, gaining energy with every lap. The magnets will then force the particles to collide once they reach maximum speed.

The entire operation is funded by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) consisting of 8,000 physicists from over 85 countries worldwide including the United States. The total cost of the project is expected to be about $8 billion (USD) and incorporates the latest technological advances.

On September 10th, the first low powered beams where circulated through the collider; however, it wont be until the 22nd of October that the high-energy collisions will take place.

The upcoming full speed tests have sparked great concerns among the public that the LHC particle collisions might produce doomsday phenomena, including dangerous microscopic black holes and strange matter that may destroy the Earth. However, two CERN-commissioned safety reviews have examined these concerns and concluded that the experiments at the LHC present no danger and that there is no reason for concern, a conclusion expressly endorsed by the American Physical Society, the world's second largest organization of physicists.

There are many theories and hopes as to what will result from these collisions in the LHC. Perhaps we will discover new power sources, expand our understanding of gravity, or find other dimensions. What's for sure is that we will have a new understanding of the universe that we live in.

$8 Billion Black Hole Machine

$8 Billion Black Hole Machine

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