News Physics

Melting nuclei re-create Big Bang broth

By Peter Weiss

- More than 2 years ago

A powerful particle accelerator in Switzerland may have briefly reproduced an ancient state of matter that pervaded the universe in the first microseconds after its birth, researchers have announced.

Nuclear shrapnel: More than 1,000 particles streak away from the collision of two lead nuclei at CERN’s SPS accelerator. A computer reconstructed the trajectories from detector readings.