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GENEVA: The world's largest superconducting magnet passed a critical test with flying colors, powering up to its nominal operating conditions at first try, the European Organization for Nuclear Research announced Thursday.
The magnet will provide a magnetic field for a giant particle detector, the Geneva-based organization said in a statement. The detector will collect data for a particle accelerator known the Large Hadron Collider (LCH), which is scheduled to be turned in November 2007.
Dubbed ATLAS, the particle detector is the largest of its kind constructed for particle physics. Among other questions, it will explore why particles have mass, what the unknown 96 percent of the universe is made of, and why nature prefers matter to antimatter.
Roughly 1,800 scientists from 35 participating countries are building the instrument, which will begin collecting data next year.
