Photo credit: CERN
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest atom smasher, has been up and running for the past 7-years, confirming the existence of a mysterious subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson. Now, physicists have proposed a $24-billion project to build an even larger collider. Called “The Future Circular Collider (FCC),” this would be four times bigger and up to ten times more powerful than the LHC. “The FCC conceptual design report is a remarkable accomplishment.It shows the tremendous potential of the FCC to improve our knowledge of fundamental physics and to advance many technologies with a broad impact on society,” said CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti. Read more for another video and additional information.
This new collider, set to be constructed near the LHC along the Swiss-French border, would greatly expand scientists’ understanding of matter and the universe. If everything goes according to plan, physicists could be using the new collider to search for new subatomic particles by mid-century.
“The plan for the new collider, developed by more than 1,000 scientists from 150 institutions around the world, calls for a multinational collaboration to build a $24-billion facility consisting of several labs and a circular tunnel with a circumference of 100 kilometers (62 miles),” reports NBC News.
