LAS Students and Faculty Visit CERN
February 9th, 2010. Posted in Academic News, General News
A group of science enthusiasts traveled to CERN (Center for European Nuclear Research) in Geneva on Jan. 30 to see the world’s largest and most complex instruments used to study our universe. Five faculty members and 30 students from different grades and science classes traveled to the research center. They got a first-hand look at the tools that aid scientists in unlocking the mysteries of the universe. LAS Physical Science Teacher, Carl Gehriger said the trip was driven by “pure enthusiasm and pure curiosity about our universe.”
How it works:
The LINAC Injector is where it all starts. The little red bottle of Hydrogen in the background (above) is the source for all the protons that will be accelerated to near light speeds in the LHC.
By the time the protons have reached the end of this accelerator they are already traveling at 1/3 the speed of light. They will then travel to the Booster ring, then on to the PS ring, next to the SPS ring and finally to the “Lord of the Rings,” the 27 km LHC where they will collide head on; recreating the conditions just after the Big Bang.
This Low Energy Ion Ring can capture, cool and store particles for further study. In fact, it has successfully done so for anti-matter. Unlike Dan Brown’s book Angels and Demons this anti-matter cannot be put in your pocket and taken from CERN! It’s 78m long!
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