A tiny big bang ?

Considered one of the world's largest physics experiments to date, the Large Hadron Collider is a gigantic particle accelerator located in a nearly 17-mile-long circular tunnel along the French-Swiss border about 330 feet underground. It was built by the European Organization for nuclear Research, also known as CERN.

In experiments scheduled to begin on September 10, the LHC will accelerate two beams of subatomic particles--called hadrons--in opposite directions to more than 99.9 percent the speed of light. Smashing the beams together will create showers of new particles for physicists to study using special detectors.

The result is likely to push forward theories of particle physics and the fundamental building blocks of all things. The LHC was designed primarily as an attempt to product the "Higgs boson," a hypothetical particle whose observation would help confirm some of the predictions in the Standard Model of physics.

***The reason for this experiment is that they are trying to re-create things that happened right after the "BIG Bang" that created this whole beautiful universe we live in :) that is ALOT of energy! and the particles will be going 99.9 % of the speed of light! LadyK

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