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Scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) again performed another first Wednesday (July 25), spinning full atoms (with electrons that orbit them) up to the speed of light
. were really the first "atoms" that humans have accelerated at these speeds is a bit semantic; The LHC accelerates atomic nuclei of one kind or another all the time. (That's why people sometimes call the giant machine, headed by the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, an "atom smasher.") But that's the first time that these nuclei have electrons orbiting around them. In this case, CERN explained in a press release that the researchers accelerated lead nuclei, each orbiting with a single electron, in a relatively weak beam of energy for "about an hour".
Full power and held the beam for about two minutes before it was ejected. "[Photos: The World’s Largest Atom Smasher (LHC)]
In a follow-up test, they kept the beam at full power for two hours with a smaller group of atoms
Michaela Schaumann, LHC physicist, said in a statement that the acceleration of atoms with electrons is it's difficult because "it is really easy to accidentally remove the electron … When that happens, the nucleus crushes into the wall of the tube because its charge is no longer synchronized with the magnetic field of the LHC. "
The -billion-Euro experiment has guarantees to protect itself, she said, if a beam becomes unstable, it is automatically dropped to protect the LHC.
However, said CERN, the complex atomic beams have proved more stable than expected.It is good news, said Schaumann, as it opens the brings a host of new experiences, the most interesting? nt complex atoms as sources of gamma rays. When electrons go from low to high energy states, they emit photons (light particles). And at the speed of the LHC, these photons would have the wavelengths and energies of the gamma rays, which can be difficult to produce in the laboratory
Originally published on Live Science.
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