CERN Is Building The Longest Ever Particle Collider At 100 Km, To Unlock The Universe's Secrets

The European Organisation for Nuclear Research, more commonly known as CERN, is probably familiar to you thanks to their possession of the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider. But apparently, that device may soon be dwarfed by another.

Reuters

Officials at CERN have just announced their plans for a "Future Circular Collider" that, if all goes to plan, could begin operations in 20140.

The scientists at the prestigious particle physics lab have reportedly been performing a feasibility study for the gigantic machine, which will occupy a new tunnel 100 km in circumference near the 27 km LHC.

Also Read: The Large Hadron Collider Just Uncovered A New Particle That's Heavier Than A Proton

According to the design report, the new collider will be four times the size of the LHC, letting the researchers smash atomic particles together at even greater speeds to analyze the fallout of them hitting at 10 times the power we've seen before.

In case you've forgotten, the LHC is responsible for CERN's discovery of the Higgs Boson. Before the collider experiments this particle, which gives all matter its mass, only existed in theory. It was finally confirmed during experiments in 2013.

CERN

More than 1,300 researchers across 150 universities have collaborated on the design report for the new collider. If given the green light, it could take about 20 years to build, and an estimated $5.7 billion just to build the tunnel housing it. An additional $4.6 billion would net them the first collider, with a second running a further $17 billion. That's about Rs 1.9 Lakh Crore in all!

Now, it's up to the 22 member states of CERN to decide whether they want to okay the project. And if they do, we could be on the cusp of more remarkable discoveries in physics.