The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has managed to create a kind of 'mini Big Bang' in its first experiments with lead ion collisions, by achieving a temperature a million times hotter than what is expected. It hits the center of the Sun , as reported by the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN).
CERN announced last week that the LHC was going to start using lead ions for its collisions , ending its phase of work with protons. Last Sunday this new phase paid off when the first reaction took place, after the lead ions reached an acceleration of 287 teraelectrovolts (TeV), much more powerful than the protons.
After these results, CERN has indicated that it opens "a new path in the investigation of the accelerator program to wave matter as it was in the first moments of the Universe ", just after the Big Bang, which is "one of the main objectives "of the center. "After a few months of routine operations, the machine is running like clockwork," said CEO Rolf Heuer.
The LHC will accelerate and collide lead ions until December 6, when the accelerator will make a technical stop for maintenance, before resuming experimentation in February 2011.
