LARGE HADRON COLLIDER IS BEING COOLED DOWN
TO PRODUCE THE SON OF THE BIG BANG
(photo is of section of the 17 mile circular tunnel of the LHC)
CERN's LHC is now being cooled down to the temperature of deep space before the Big Bang. LINK
As of today, 7/24, most sectors are in the go range of 4.5K-1.9K. Once all sectors are cooled down and checked, the whole LHC will be cranked up to start the biggest and most expensive scientific experiment in history.
TEMPERATURE EXPLANATION ON CERN DRAWING FROM ABOVE LINK
Temperatures given are in Kelvins. The plan is to cool the LHC down as close to absolute zero as possible. Absolute zero is the temperature at which molecular motion comes to a virtual stop. On the Kelvin scale, this is represented as "0," while on the Fahrenheit scale this is -459.67F.
A room temperature of approximately 70F is the same as 300K. And on the Kelvin scale, water freezes at 273.15k and boils at 373.15k.
GOAL OF CERN
The goal of this largest scientific experiment in history is to create conditions that were found in the universe close to the time of the Big Bang.
Two counter rotating beams of protons will be smashed into each other at close to the speed of light to create a mini-Big Bang.
When the proton beams smash into each other, they will leave trails of many known subatomic particles and perhaps the trail of the never seen Higgs boson--the so-called God Particle. Note that subatomic particles can not be seen directly, but they all leave characteristic trails that identify them.
As we've written before, if they find the Higgs boson, Peter Higgs, who predicted its existence about 40 years ago, is sure to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.
THE HIGGS BOSON
Peter Higgs filled in the gaps in physics by postulating that a never seen subatomic particle, now often called the Higgs boson, is the reason that we even have existence.
In simplest terms, Higgs said that the only reason mass exists at all is tha
t there is a field of these Higgs bosons that all elementary particles pass through which allows some to create mass.Without the Higgs boson, according to Higgs, the universe would not exist; or if it did exist, it would only contain massless elementary particles such as the photon.
The LHC should be fully operational by the end of July or the beginning of August.
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