CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be restarted on July 5, sending high-energy particles speeding near the speed of light in a quest to unlock more secrets of the universe. However, this decision is sparking doomsday fears–even among scientists.
CERN to restart Hadron Collider on July 5
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, also known as CERN will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator, by restarting it on July 5, for the first time since 2019, the Sun reports.
The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.
The LHC works by sending beams of protons – positively charged particles present in the nucleus of atoms – speeding toward one another at nearly the speed of light. In the LHC, this is achieved in a ring that is 27 kilometers long. The basic purpose has been to study so-called dark matter and dark energy, as well as other mysteries of the universe.
One of the greatest accomplishments of the LHC was its role in discovering a new fundamental particle, named the Higgs Boson. The discovery was announced on July 4, 2012, Nature reports.
The Higgs Boson particle has been nicknamed the “God particle,” as a result of the 1993 book The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? by Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman,
Why is CERN’s Hadron Collider sparking doomsday fears?
There are many reasons the LHC creates a plethora of fears, many of them justified and safety is the foremost concern. Many are worried that just because something bad hasn’t happened yet, that doesn’t mean it can’t.
Some scientists criticized its use, calling it an affront to human rights, suggesting harmful states of matter could be created, even micro black holes, leading to doomsday scenarios.
First, the device generates temperatures that are over 100,000 times hotter than the sun’s core–its hottest part, the Indian Express reports.
The LHC was shut down three years ago. But on July 5, its 10th anniversary, CERN will commemorate the event by restarting the LHC using unprecedented energy levels, and it has some people freaking out and fearing the end of the world.
Colliding conspiracy theories
With something that has the potential for doomsday scenarios, it’s not surprising that conspiracy theories would also arise.
One of the most prevalent conspiracies is that the device is being used to create a “portal” that allows things from another dimension to enter ours, while other twists on the idea say it creates an opening to multiple dimensions, and still others say it opens a gateway straight to hell, the Sun reported.
