CERN's atom smasher sets record energy level

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced on Monday that its Large Hadron Collider had become the world's highest energy particle accelerator, smashing the world record.

AFP - The world's biggest atom-smasher has set a world record by accelerating to energy levels that had never been previously reached, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said Monday.

"CERN's Large Hadron Collider has today become the world's highest energy particle accelerator, having accelerated its twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV in the early hours of the morning," said the organisation.

A teraelectronvolt (TeV) is equivalent to the energy level of a flying mosquito, while CERN wants to ultimately achieve maximum power of 7.0 teraelectronvolts or trillion electronvolts.

The previous world record was set by the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory's Tevatron collider in 2001, when it reached 0.98 TeV.

Date created : 2009-11-30