Printer Friendly
The Free Library
19,536,519 articles and books
Member login
User name  
Password 
 
Join us Forgot password?

"Big Bang" machine becomes colder than deep space.


Byline: ANI

London, October 17 (ANI): Reports indicate that the Large Hadron Collider This article or section contains information about an expected future scientific facility.
It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change as the facility approaches completion.
 (LHC LHC Large Hadron Collider
LHC Lahore High Court
LHC Lonely Hearts Club
LHC Lake Havasu City (Arizona, USA)
LHC Log Homes Council
LHC Left-Hand Circular
LHC Les Horribles Cernettes (band) 
), popularly dubbed the "Big Bang machine", has become colder than deep space.

According to a report by BBC BBC
 in full British Broadcasting Corp.

Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927.
 News, all eight sectors of the LHC have now been cooled to their operating temperature of 1.9 kelvin (-271C; -456F) - colder than deep space.

The large magnets that bend particle beams around the LHC are kept at this frigid temperature using liquid helium.

The magnets are arranged end-to-end in a 27km-long circular tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border.

The cool-down is an important milestone ahead of the collider's scheduled re-start in the latter half of November.

The LHC has been shut down since September 19, 2008, when a magnet problem called a "quench" caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak into the LHC tunnel.

After the accident, the particle accelerator had to be warmed up so that repairs could take place.

The most powerful physics experiment ever built, the Large Hadron Collider will recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang.

It is operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research European Organization for Nuclear Research: see CERN.  (CERN CERN or European Organization for Nuclear Research, nuclear and particle physics research center straddling the French-Swiss border W of Geneva, Switzerland. ), based in Geneva Geneva, canton and city, Switzerland
Geneva (jənē`və), Fr. Genève, canton (1990 pop. 373,019), 109 sq mi (282 sq km), SW Switzerland, surrounding the southwest tip of the Lake of Geneva.
.

Two beams of protons will be fired down pipes running through the magnets. These beams will travel in opposite directions around the main "ring" at close to the speed of light.

At allotted points around the tunnel, the proton beams cross paths, smashing into one another with cataclysmic energy.

Scientists hope to see new particles in the debris of these collisions, revealing fundamental new insights into the nature of the cosmos.

The operating temperature of the LHC is just a shade above "absolute zero" (-273.15C) - the coldest temperature possible.

By comparison, the temperature in remote regions of outer space is about 2.7 kelvin (-270C; -454F).

The LHC's magnets are designed to be "superconducting", which means they channel electric current with zero resistance and very little power loss. But to become superconducting, the magnets must be cooled to very low temperatures. (ANI)

Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency.  (ANI) - All Rights Reserved.

Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company
COPYRIGHT 2009 Al Bawaba (Middle East) Ltd.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Reader Opinion

Title:

Comment:



 

Article Details
Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Publication:Asian News International
Date:Oct 21, 2009
Words:348
Previous Article:Oozy new military robo can squeeze through tiny spaces.
Next Article:Vast icy plateau in Antarctica is calmest place on Earth.
Topics:



Related Articles
Light show. (Science Times).
FROST IN SPACE; Universe's coldest spot is 272o below.
The nebula that's deep frozen in time . . .
Ancient galaxies revealed by Hubble.
Formula for fun at school; GREAT BARR.
A whole lot of nothing.
pounds 4bn collider will be repaired by June.
ESA to launch two large observatories to look deep into space and time.
"Big Bang" machine becomes colder than deep space.

Terms of use | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc. | Feedback | For webmasters | Submit articles