2024-10-04 11:20:00
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Him CERNthe European Organization for Nuclear Research, is not only the home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest and most powerful particle accelerator ever built, but also the setting of some of more extreme phenomena never observed on Earth. Between the laboratories and tunnels of this gigantic structure, located between Switzerland and France, scientists have recreated such extreme conditions that test your understanding of what “hot” and “cold” mean.
Here, in this important research center, not only are the mysteries of the universe investigated, but temperatures have been generated that even exceed those of Earth. center of the sunas well as temperatures close to absolute zerothe point at which all molecular activity ceases. Can you imagine that in the same place it is possible to replicate the conditions of the Big Bang and freeze particles at temperatures so low that matter barely moves?
THE MOST INTENSE HEAT IN THE UNIVERSE ON EARTH
When we talk about extreme heat, many think of the core of the Sun or the insides of a star. However, in 2012, a team of CERN researchers managed to generate a temperature of 5.5 billion degrees Celsiusa figure that far exceeds the 15 million degrees that is, at the center of the Sun. How is it possible to reach such an enormous temperature on Earth? The key lies in particle collisions at speeds close to the speed of light.
In the Large Hadron Collider, protons and lead nuclei are accelerated to very high energies and then collide with each other. These collisions only recreate conditions similar to those that existed in the earliest moments of the universe a millionth of a second after the Big Bang. During these brief moments, the temperature reached is so high that matter does not behave as usual. Instead of protons and neutrons, a “quark-gluon plasma” is formed, a sort of subatomic soup in which the fundamental particles of matter are free, just as they are believed to be immediately after the Big Bang.
This reconstruction of the primordial conditions of the universe is the key to understanding how matter as we know it today was formed. Although these temperatures are ephemeral and are only reached at the exact points of particle collision, their study allows scientists to explore the fundamental properties of the universe and propose new theories about its early evolution.
Everett Collection / Cordon Press
The large hadron collider at CERN
THE COLD CLOSEST TO ABSOLUTE ZERO
But not everything at CERN is fire and heat. At the opposite end of the thermal spectrum, this same facility also hosts experiments where extremely low temperatures, close to, are reached absolute zero (-273.15 degrees Celsius). This is the theoretical limit where the kinetic energy of the particles, i.e. their movement, ceases completely. While it is impossible to reach absolute zero, CERN scientists have managed to cool atoms and particles to temperatures incredibly close to this point.
One of the applications of these ultra-low temperatures is cooling of superconducting magnets of the LHC. These magnets are responsible for guiding and holding the particles in the circular path of the accelerator. To work properly, they must be -271.3 degrees Celsiuswhich is obtained by using liquid helium as a refrigerant. At these temperatures the materials lose all electrical resistance, allowing the generation of the magnetic fields necessary to keep particles accelerated to almost the speed of light under control.
Furthermore, this extreme cold is also necessary for other types of fundamental experiments in particle physics. For example, by cooling particles to temperatures close to absolute zero, scientists can study them in a minimum-energy state, helping to detect phenomena that would otherwise be hidden by thermal noise. These experiments are essential for discovering even smaller particles or better understanding how they work dark matterone of the great unknowns of modern physics.
A BALANCE BETWEEN EXTREMES
The contrast between the thermal extremes reached at CERN is truly astonishing. On the one hand we have temperatures thousands of times hotter than the center of the Sunwhere matter transforms into forms we can barely understand. On the other, the most absolute coldnecessary for experiments to have the precision required by current science. In this balance between fire and ice, scientists explore the most fundamental questions of the universe: How did it all begin? What is the universe made of? What forces govern it?
CERN shows us that in the quest to understand the mysteries of the cosmos, we need both the most intense heat and the most extreme cold. This unique laboratory has managed to recreate some of the most extreme conditions in the universe, and with each experiment, we get closer and closer to revealing its secrets.
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