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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Collider halted until next year | Collider halted until next year |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva will be shut off until spring 2009 while engineers probe a magnet failure. | |
| The incident on 19 September caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak out into the experiment's 27km-long tunnel. | The incident on 19 September caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak out into the experiment's 27km-long tunnel. |
| Officials said the time required to fully investigate the problem precluded a re-start before the lab's winter maintenance period. | Officials said the time required to fully investigate the problem precluded a re-start before the lab's winter maintenance period. |
| The collider is built to smash protons together at huge speeds, recreating conditions moments after the Big Bang. | The collider is built to smash protons together at huge speeds, recreating conditions moments after the Big Bang. |
| Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics. | Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics. |
| "Coming immediately after the very successful start of LHC operation on 10 September, this is undoubtedly a psychological blow," said Robert Aymar, director-general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), in a statement. | "Coming immediately after the very successful start of LHC operation on 10 September, this is undoubtedly a psychological blow," said Robert Aymar, director-general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), in a statement. |
| But he praised the skill and preparation of the teams involved in building the particle accelerator. | But he praised the skill and preparation of the teams involved in building the particle accelerator. |
| The problem occurred last weekend, when a failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100 degrees. | The problem occurred last weekend, when a failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100 degrees. |
| The fire brigade were called out after a tonne of liquid helium leaked into the tunnel, which straddles the French-Swiss border. | The fire brigade were called out after a tonne of liquid helium leaked into the tunnel, which straddles the French-Swiss border. |
| The machine has more than 1,200 "dipole" magnets arranged end-to-end in an underground tunnel that runs in a circle for 27km. | The machine has more than 1,200 "dipole" magnets arranged end-to-end in an underground tunnel that runs in a circle for 27km. |
| These magnets carry and steer beams of protons which will whizz around the machine at close to the speed of light. | |
| At allotted points around the tunnel, the beams will cross paths, smashing together near four massive "detectors" that monitor the collisions for interesting events. |