Mini-Big Bangs created....
* Scientists collide particles at highest energy ever
* Success hailed as huge step in understanding universe
* Mysterious dark matter, new dimensions may be found
By Robert Evans
GENEVA, March 30 (Reuters) - Physicists smashed sub-atomic particles into each other with record energy on Tuesday, creating thousands of mini-Big Bangs like the primeval explosion that gave birth to the universe 13.7 billion years ago.
Scientists and engineers in control rooms across the sprawling European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva burst into applause as the $9.4 billion project to probe the origins of the cosmos scored its first big success.
"This opens the door to a totally new era of discovery," said CERN's director of research Sergio Bertolucci. "It is a step into the unknown where we will find things we thought were there and perhaps things we didn't know existed."
"It just shows what we can do in pushing knowledge forward on where we came from, how the early universe evolved," CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer said, speaking, like Bertolucci, on a video relay from Tokyo.
Colourful images of the collisions, at the centre of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project which will continue for over a decade, were flashed onto screens across CERN.
CERN scientists say the images reflect what happened a fraction of a second after the Big Bang as matter and energy was spewed out, leading to the formation of galaxies stars and planets, and eventually the appearance of life.
* Success hailed as huge step in understanding universe
* Mysterious dark matter, new dimensions may be found
By Robert Evans
GENEVA, March 30 (Reuters) - Physicists smashed sub-atomic particles into each other with record energy on Tuesday, creating thousands of mini-Big Bangs like the primeval explosion that gave birth to the universe 13.7 billion years ago.
Scientists and engineers in control rooms across the sprawling European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva burst into applause as the $9.4 billion project to probe the origins of the cosmos scored its first big success.
"This opens the door to a totally new era of discovery," said CERN's director of research Sergio Bertolucci. "It is a step into the unknown where we will find things we thought were there and perhaps things we didn't know existed."
"It just shows what we can do in pushing knowledge forward on where we came from, how the early universe evolved," CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer said, speaking, like Bertolucci, on a video relay from Tokyo.
Colourful images of the collisions, at the centre of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project which will continue for over a decade, were flashed onto screens across CERN.
CERN scientists say the images reflect what happened a fraction of a second after the Big Bang as matter and energy was spewed out, leading to the formation of galaxies stars and planets, and eventually the appearance of life.
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