The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, located beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. Built in a circular tunnel with a circumference of 17 miles (27 kilometers), the LHC is a colossal scientific instrument designed to explore the fundamental properties of matter and the origins of the universe. It is housed in a complex of underground tunnels and chambers, with its main ring crossing the border between Switzerland and France multiple times.

The primary purpose of the LHC is to collide high-energy protons traveling close to the speed of light. These collisions generate extreme conditions, replicating the state of the universe just moments after the Big Bang. The LHC consists of four main detectors – ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, and ALICE – strategically positioned around its ring to capture and analyze the various particles produced during collisions. The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, a fundamental particle that gives mass to other particles, stands as one of the LHC’s landmark achievements. This groundbreaking discovery contributed to validating the Standard Model of particle physics. The LHC continues to be at the forefront of scientific research, probing deeper into the mysteries of the universe, including dark matter, antimatter, and potential new particles that could revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos.