Experts from Switzerland's world's biggest particle accelerator have submitted proposals to develop a much larger supercollider.
Breakthroughs of the f Large Hadron Collider
Between 1998 and 2008, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) built the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in collaboration with more than 10,000 scientists across more than 100 countries. It is considered the world's largest and highest-energy particle collided beneath the France-Switzerland border near Geneva.
The Large Hadron Collider achieved its first high-energy particle collisions in 2010 and has received several upgrades. It accelerates subatomic particles near the speed of light before smashing them into each other. It has also discovered the Higgs boson, also called the "God particle," which allowed experts to understand better where matter gets its mass from.
However, the Large Hadron Collider can still not discover the secrets of dark matter and energy. Understanding the little-known forces and particles will allow scientists to understand our universe better.
Huge Atom Smasher
CERN scientists plan to build a new accelerator, the world's most giant particle collider, more than triple the length of the Large Hadron Collider. On February 5, they revealed more details about this project, called the Future Circular Collider (FCC), which aims to be the successor to the LHC.
If the proposal is approved, the FCC will begin to smash its first particles together around 2050. After that, it will start its highest-energy collisions around 2070.
Future Circular Collider will run under France and Switzerland. The idea behind this project is to send particles to spin around a ring to smash into each other h at almost the speed of light so their true nature will be revealed through the collisions.
As the current significant and most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider is expected to have run its course by 2040. The faster and more powerful Future Circular Collider will enable scientists to continue pushing the envelope. Experts hope this will help them confirm the existence of more particles, particularly the building blocks of matter, which have only been theorized so far.
Another goal of the FCC is to understand better what 95% of the universe is made of. It has been theorized that 68% of the universe is dark energy while 27% is dark matter, both of which remain a mystery.
Aside from this, the Future Circular Collider will also try to answer the question as to why there is so little antimatter in the universe compared to matter. CERN experts hope that upgrading the ability of humans to smash particles can help gain insight into these enigmas.
In 2028, CERN's member states will decide whether or not the project will proceed as planned. If they are approved, the construction of the collider will start in 2033.
After eight years of study, scientists have decided that the FCC configuration would be a new circular tunnel 56.5 miles (90.7 kilometers) long and 18 feet (5.5 meters) in diameter. The tunnel would connect to the Large Hadron Collider under the Geneva region and its namesake lake in Switzerland. It will be located to the south near the French town of Annecy. CERN plans to consult threads around the route and conduct impact studies on how the tunnel would affect the area.
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