LHC at Operating Temperature
by azmanam on Oct 16 2009 (2444 Views)ScienceInsider is reporting news out of CERN today that all sectors of the LHC have reached operating temperature of 1.9 K. You’ll recall we went through this buildup of emotion last year, only to be disappointed when the particle accelerator broke down. Now that the magnets are cool, the team is slowly building up the current to the desired 6 kA needed for correct particle guidance.
Also in place are new detection systems aimed to prevent another disaster like last year. Readings will be taken in closer to real time to allow better overall monitoring of the various components of the system.
ScienceInsider claims beams will be in orbit sometime in November, followed by low energy collisions sometime in December. They’ll ramp up the energy of the collisions slowly and probably won’t get to the cool collisions until January at the earliest. (/sarc)
Did anyone else see how badly that magnet quenched. The massive amount of destruction was impressive.
What’s up with the physicists that claim the LHC of the future is coming back to sabotage the LHC of now? That sounds like a Doctor Who episode
When is the next Dr. Who coming out?