What is it just exactly ??
Overall... The LHC consists of a 17 mile ring of very cold
and very powerful magnets. These magnets bend a beam of particles around in a
circle and speed them up so fast that well,, you wouldn't be able to keep up
:).. Once they are literally almost going light speed they collide them with
particles going in the other lane of traffic hitting them head on. These
collisions hopefully create the most energetic explosions ever produced by man
but are very controlled and kept in a very tiny area. The debris from the
collisions sprays out in all directions but in a very tell tale way that lets
physicists figure out what the debris was made made of. Some of this "debris"
could change our understanding of the world forever. The process of figuring out
what the debris is made of is done in a detector.
The LHC machine has 4 primary detectors.
ATLAS - This will look for things that will either confirm our understanding of
physics or prove we need a new theory. It will try and figure out why things
have mass and will study other dimensions if they exist. It might routinely
detect micro black holes. Dont worry these black holes will evaporate and cause
no harm.
ALICE - This detector will study a form of matter that existed just after the
Big Bang. Yup, the LHC collisions will create conditions that will be close to
the original Big Bang that started the whole universe off..
CMS - Also a very cool massive detector like ATLAS. It will look for what causes
mass and will also look into the stuff called Dark Matter that apparently makes
up a very large percentage of everything.
LHCb - This beauty is looking at Antimatter. Where is the Antimatter ? We dont
understand why there is not more of it around, so LHCb is gonna explore this
issue.
Soooo.... The LHC is the huge, massive, powerful machine that spins particles
around at near light speed and causes them to collide. This will allow us to
understand many interesting and potentially important things that could well
result in everyday uses and advance mankind to a whole different level of
understanding of the universe around us. SoOOoo maybe we might be closer to
transporters and warp drive ! hehehe...