CERN Didn’t Open A Portal But They Did Find Three ‘Exotic’ Particles For The First Time Ever
Today is the day – the day everyone thought CERN was about to open a portal when they turned The Large Hadron Collider on for the first time in 10 years.
While CERN did turn on the LHC, they did not open a portal.
I know, I know, so many people wanted something resembling a real-life Stranger Things to happen…
The good and sort of crazy news is, they did find three ‘exotic’ particles for the first time ever!!
What is CERN?
A European organization known as CERN operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world.
On July 5, 2022 CERN turned on a particle accelerator known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that was expected to have collisions at unprecedented energy levels.
Basically, they smashed particles.
The theory was originally that a “portal” would open after two high-energy particle beams were set to travel at close to the speed of light before they collide.
Instead, scientists say they have observed a new kind of “pentaquark” and the first-ever pair of “tetraquarks,” which adds three members to the list of new hadrons found at the LHC.
What are Quarks?
Quarks are elementary particles that usually combine in groups of twos and threes to form hadrons such as the protons and neutrons that make up atomic nuclei.
“The more analyses we perform, the more kinds of exotic hadrons we find,” physicist Niels Tuning said in a statement.
“We’re witnessing a period of discovery similar to the 1950s, when a ‘particle zoo’ of hadrons started being discovered and ultimately led to the quark model of conventional hadrons in the 1960s. We’re creating ‘particle zoo 2.0’.”
Isn’t that crazy cool? Science is pretty awesome.
