Image shows the magnetic core being loaded into the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector of the LHC. The colider has been plagued with problems since it failed to start on schedule in 2008.
GENEVA: Two circulating beams have produced the first particle collisions in the world's biggest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, three days after its restart.
In a statement, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said two beams circulating simultaneously led to collisions at all four detection points during the afternoon and evening on Monday.
"It's a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time," said CERN director general Rolf Heuer. "But we need to keep a sense of perspective. There's still much to do before we can start the LHC physics program."
"Enormous success"
CERN had declared earlier Monday the relaunch of the 3.9 billion euro (US$5 billion) collider "an enormous success," after it was out of action for 14 months due to a serious electrical fault.
Scientists are looking to the collider - inside a 27-kilometre tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border - to mimic the conditions that followed the Big Bang and help explain the origins of the universe.
"Today the LHC circulated two beams simultaneously for the first time, allowing the operators to test the synchronisation of the beams and giving the experiments their first chance to look for proton-proton collisions," CERN said in its statement.
"With just one bunch of particles circulating in each direction, the beams can be made to cross in up to two places in the ring," it explained.
First collision
The first collision was picked up at 2:44 pm local time (1:44 pm GMT) by the Atlas detector, beneath the Swiss town of Meyrin, one of several laid out along the route of the world's most powerful physics experiment.
Smash-ups then followed at the three other detectors, known as CMS, Alice and LHCb.
"It was standing-room-only in the Alice control room and cheers erupted with the first collisions," said Alice spokesperson Jurgen Schukraft. "This is simply tremendous."
"The tracks we're seeing are beautiful," added LHCb spokesperson Andrei Golutvin. "We're all ready for serious data taking in a few days time."
Man has a poor understanding
Man has a poor understanding of life. He mistakes knowledge for wisdom. He tries to unveil the Holy secrets of our Father, the Great Spirit. He attempts to impose his Laws and ways upon Mother Earth. Even though he, himself, is part of Nature, he chooses to disregard and ignore it, for the sake of his own immediate gain. But the Laws of Nature are far stronger than those of Mankind. Man must awake at last and learn to understand how little time remains before he will become the cause of his own downfall. And he has so much to learn. To learn to see with the heart. He must learn to respect Mother Earth - She who has given life to everything; to our Brothers and Sisters; the Animals and the Plants; to the Rivers, the Lakes, the Oceans and the Winds. He must realise that this Planet does not belong to him, but that he has to care for and maintain the delicate balance of Nature, for the sake of the wellbeing of our children and all future generations. It is the duty of man to preserve the Earth and the Creation of the Great Spirit. Mankind being but a solitary grain of sand, in the Holy Circle which encloses all of life.
Who told you there was a
Who told you there was a "Father, Great Spirit"? I can appreciate your words, but the fact that you own a computer and use the internet, reveals a bit of hypocrisy in your speak. If you were living in a cave, eating wild berries, and keeping warm by migrating with the seasons, you might give me pause to think -- you are not. We have a consciousness... we ponder our own mortality and our existence. We know that someday this planet will suffer ANOTHER catastrophic challenge -- us or otherwise (asteroids, meteors, earth shifts, etc). We need to be open to looking beyond "Mother Nature" and find ways to explore space. This is part of that process. How about Father Universe? The irony is that you hold this planet as the only planet, us as the only existence, that THIS is all there is out there. We need balance, that is for sure. We cannot consume like we are and expect to have enough time to pursue these possibilities. But to give up and do nothing... well, that is just as nuts.