Smashing Particles at Near-Light Speed: A Visual Guide to the Large Hadron Collider

A world effort to acquire a extra full understanding of the elementary constructing blocks of the universe resumed Tuesday close to Geneva, as the world’s largest particle collider restarted scientific operations after a few three-year hiatus for upkeep and upgrades.

The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, includes a 17-mile round tunnel by which particles like protons are accelerated to almost the pace of sunshine after which smashed into one another to produce showers of smaller particles. The smashups are analyzed with the assist of specialised detectors arrayed round the ring in the hope that the knowledge will reveal beforehand unknown subatomic particles. That is what occurred a decade in the past, when CERN scientists introduced the discovery of the much-ballyhooed Higgs boson, a particle that provides all matter its mass.