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The doomsday machine is again in operation! As most are aware, the CERN group has constructed a huge Hadron Collider in France near the border of Switzerland. It was first scheduled to begin operations in mid June, 2008, and then to conduct their first collisions by August 2008.
But a few encounters with difficulties which had to be corrected, placed the official beginning of the operation at September 10. They were able to fire particles around he entire tunnel but began with low speed, one direction beams, then the opposite directions and all seemed to be going well until the 9th day after startup, when two of the huge bending magnets malfunctioned, causing a lot of damage. This caused the new startup date to be set for June of 2009.
"The collider is designed to recreate conditions just after the Big Bang, believed by most cosmologists to have created the universe 13.7 billion years ago.
"It sends beams of sub-atomic particles around a 27-km (17-mile) tunnel under the French-Swiss border outside Geneva to collide with each other at nearly the speed of light.
"These collisions will explode in a burst of energy which scientists will monitor for new or previously unseen particles which they predict could help explain the nature of mass and the origins of the universe." (Large Hadron Collider Startup Postponed--Educated Earth/ 02-10-2009)
Before the first startup, the firms had a lawsuit filed against them to ensure the safety of the end result of this massive experiment. Which delayed the startup date. The scientists involved believe that this machine, once successful collisions are made, may produce miniature black holes and other phenomenon as was done at the time immediately after the hypothetical "Big Bang" occurred.
Those filing the lawsuit felt that this completely experimental operation, left much to the unknown, since it is theorized that black holes have such a tremendous concentration of gravity that it can pull in any surrounding matter.
The smaller Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois which has nowhere near the speed and potential of the CERN collider has been experimenting for years and have made some rather interesting disclosures. For instance the Higgs boson, or as referred to as the 'God particle' may not be as thought, of an extremely high mass particle as thought but rather a low mass particle. This particle which is being sought and has been for several years at the Illinois site, is a prime target for the CERN group, however, if the scientists in Illinois are correct, they will have a distinct advantage over the large collider.
The CERN collider, after being shut down since September 19, 2008 once again fired up on last Friday, October 23, 2009. Here is the latest from this.
Friday afternoon a first beam of ions entered the LHC clockwise beam pipe through the TI2 transfer line. The beam was successfully guided through the ALICE detector until point 3 where it was dumped.
During the late evening on Friday, the first beam of protons also entered the LHC clockwise ring and travelled until point 3. In the afternoon of Saturday, protons travelled from the SPS through the TI8 transfer line and the LHCb experiment, until point 7 where they were dumped.
All settings and parameters showed a perfect functioning of the machine, which is preparing for its first circulating beam in the coming weeks. (CERN Website)
It is this author's firm belief that this machine is incapable of reaching those points of extreme which are longed for. Their ultimate goal is to send particles in opposing directions at very near the speed of light and collide them in a temperature at almost very near absolute zero. These speeds and temperature are approaching the extreme limits of possibility. It has been beset with material failure since it's beginning. The project cost 6.4 billion to construct and after 9 days of cautious operation, not nearly reaching the maximum limits and no collisions, suffered a 21+ million dollar damage. If I wee a betting man, I'd put what I could spare on the premise that it will self destruct.
Included here are two links. The first one is to the announcement of the present startup on the 23rd of October, and the other contains numerous large beautiful photos of all aspects of this extraordinary machine. Well worth viewing.
http://user.web.cern.ch/user/news/2009/091026.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html
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