Atom smasher catches 1st high-energy collisions

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/ap_on_sc/eu_big_bang_machine

GENEVA – The world's largest atom smasher has recorded its first high-energy collisions of protons, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Physicists hope those collisions will help them understand suspected phenomena such as dark matter, antimatter and ultimately the creation of the universe billions of years ago, which many theorize occurred as a massive explosion known as the Big Bang.

The collisions occurred Tuesday evening as the Large Haldron Collider underwent test runs in preparation for operations next year, said Christine Sutton of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN.

Two beams of circulating particles traveling in opposite directions at 1.18 trillion electron volts produced the collisions, she said. The Atlas "experiment," one of four major detectors in cathedral-sized rooms in the collider's underground tunnel at Geneva, had part of its equipment turned on and could register collisions.

"They recorded a handful of collisions, and one of them looks quite nice, so it's on their Web site," she said.

Sutton said the collisions occurred when the machine was ramped up briefly to 1.18 TeV. That same level set a world record for proton acceleration in November, when Geneva's particle beams traveled with 20 percent more power than Fermilab near Chicago, which previously held the record.

The operators plan many more collisions at lower energies so the experiments can calibrate their equipment and prepare for more advances ahead.

CERN then plans more collisions at 1.18 TeV to give all experiments the opportunity to record data at that level, but new scientific discoveries are not expected before next year when the beams are ramped up still higher, to 3.5 TeV.

That will be 3.5 times more energy that has been reached at Fermilab, previously the most powerful collider.

look at how short that one guy's tie is lol

  On 12/10/2009 at 5:58 AM, karmakramer said:

 

That will be 3.5 times more energy that has been reached at Fermilab, previously the most powerful collider.

 

i was just at Fermilab over Thanksgiving and took a ton of pics. I grew up nearby.

IDM as FUCK!

The coolest part is the fact that there are fucking buffalo!

looks more like sneaksta303 to me.

karmakramer, you're the king of anticlimactic threads. Just like Avatar, ain't nothin happened yet

  On 12/10/2009 at 6:34 AM, lumpenprol said:

karmakramer, you're the king of anticlimactic threads. Just like Avatar, ain't nothin happened yet

  On 12/10/2009 at 6:29 AM, hahathhat said:

looks more like sneaksta303 to me.

looks like Vibert a bit to me.

it's yek.

  On 12/10/2009 at 6:50 AM, essines said:

it's yek.

yeah man, good call. him too.

  On 12/10/2009 at 6:03 AM, LOL Alzado said:

look at how short that one guy's tie is lol

Dude, they're scientists, not professional WATMM posters. You can't expect them to be all sartorial.

omgz 9 1 1

question : what happens if you sit down into the LHC just in the middle of the two beams, and wait for the collision ?

you turn into some kind of super hero

  On 12/10/2009 at 3:47 PM, Babar said:

question : what happens if you sit down into the LHC just in the middle of the two beams, and wait for the collision ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQxQYWW7uzE

Fucking lol at the Half Life look-alikes. Serious fucking lol.

  On 12/10/2009 at 5:58 AM, karmakramer said:

lol