The LHC is a ring that is 17 miles around. Inside the ring the temperature is near absolute zero. The subatomic particles move around in the ring nearly at the speed of light, in doing so they impact with atoms. The CERN – Council for Nuclear Research (in French it is Organisation Europeenne pour la Recherche Nucleaire) research experiments are making 600 million atomic collisions each second. With every atomic single collision there are 14 million volts of electrical energy goes into them. The scientists hope to observe something similar to what they believe happened at the time of the big bang. It is believed that the universe was created by such an atomic impact. It is also believed that the universe has been expanding since the impact and is still expanding at this time.
What exactly can we learn from the Large Hadron Collider experiment?
The scientists that are running the experiment are in hopes to recreate what is believed to have happened in the big bang. If the experiment is successful, scientists hope to uncover the God particle, also known as the Higgs Boson. They, the scientists, hope to better understand the laws of particle physics, and the mysteries of the universe. The laws of physics behave in a certain way that is predictable. To better understand what happens on the atomic and subatomic level can help scientists to understand how the universe works.
Scientists hope to prove that we are part of an expanding universe, and that the placement and motion of the earth, sun, moon, and stars of our solar system, as well as all the solar systems of every galaxy can be explained by such an impact, as replicated by the LHC experiment.
It is also possible that these experiments may be able to prove the existence of other dimensions. By watching how gravity affects atomic particles at collision scientists may be able to uncover if there are indeed special dimensions in the universe.
This project costs $50 million dollars, considering how much money we in the world spend every year for entertainment, this is not a bad price to finally be able to unravel some mysteries that have eluded scientists for years. One such mystery is: why do the stars on the outer edge of our Milky Way galaxy spin as fast as the stars at the center of the galaxy? Our present understanding of physical science is that objects spinning on the outer edge spin faster than those near the center, which contradicts the physical science of the stars.
Resources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
- http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/god-particle/achenbach-text
- http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/unlocking_the_secrets_of_the_universe_with_the_humble_higgs_boson/
