Uncovering the Universe’s First Moments: CERN’s Secret 27-Kilometer Experiment
For decades, we have been looking up at the sky in search of answers about the origin of everything. But perhaps the most important clue is not in the telescopes that watch the heavens, but underground. 100 meters deep, the CERN houses the Large Hadron Collider, a 27-kilometer machine designed to recreate the conditions that shaped the universe 13.8 billion years ago.
### The Most Enigmatic Tunnel on the Planet
It crosses the border between Switzerland and France like an underground highway for particles. Inside its tubes, protons accelerated almost at the speed of light collide, releasing energies that cannot be achieved anywhere else on Earth. The collision is not meant to destroy, but to reveal: each impact unveils a handful of new particles, as if they were born anew.
### The Impossible Machine
To keep the protons on their trajectory, they are cooled with liquid helium to -271°C, just two degrees above absolute zero. The current flowing through these magnets is equivalent to tens of thousands of amperes, a current capable of melting any material not specifically designed for this extreme environment. The paradox is that all this power is confined in a vacuum purer than interstellar space.
