LARGE HADRON COLLIDER (LHC)

Why in the News?

The world’s most powerful particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), began smashing protons into each other at unprecedented levels of energy.

Key Points:

About Large Hadron Collider

• The Large Hadron Collider is a giant, complex machine built to study particles that are the smallest known building blocks of all things.
• Constructed By: European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
• The LHC consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way.
• It is buried 100 metres underground on the Swiss-French border.
• In its operational state, it fires two beams of protons almost at the speed of light in opposite directions inside a ring of superconducting electromagnets.
• The magnetic field created by the superconducting electromagnets keeps the protons in a tight beam and guides them along the way as they travel through beam pipes and finally collide.