Geneva: Scientists have restarted the
world`s most powerful atom-smasher overnight, the European
Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said on Sunday, as they
launch a new bid to uncover the secrets of the universe.
"The LHC is on its way again. First beam of 2010
circulated in each direction by 0310 GMT," said CERN in a
tweet on its website today.
The 3.9 billion euro (USD 5.6 billion) Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) was shut down in December to ready it for
collisions at unfathomed energy levels.
It was run for a few weeks after being successfully
revived from a 14 month breakdown.
The particle collider -- inside a 27-kilometre tunnel
straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva -- is aimed at
understanding the origins of the universe by recreating the
conditions that followed the Big Bang.
In the weeks before the technical shutdown in December,
the collider achieved over a million particle collisions and
accelerated proton beams to energy levels never reached
before, according to CERN.
Collisions reached a world record energy level of 2.36
teraelectronvolts (TeV), already allowing scientists to gather
data.
But CERN now wants to reach 7.0 TeV to try to recreate
conditions close to the Big Bang, and run it at those levels
for 18 to 24 months.
PTI
