CERN Large Hadron Collider is back online

The world’s most powerful atom smasher is at it again.

 

After spending the winter in hibernation, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 17-mile-long particle collider near Geneva, Switzerland, is once again slamming together protons to investigate the fundamental building blocks of matter.

 

This time around the LHC is kicking atoms and taking names as it hunts for answers to some of the most pressing questions in physics.

 

Physicists will explore how we ended up with a universe of matter after the Big Bang as well as what makes up dark matter, a hypothetical substance that physicists believe makes up more than a quarter of the universe (compared to regular matter, which makes up less than 5%).

 

Read More: CERN Large Hadron Collider is back online – Business Insider