The only U.S. particle collider shuts down – so a new one may rise

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider stops work after more than 25 years of mind-bending discoveries

A photo of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider consisted of two rings (shown) that accelerated protons and atomic nuclei to near light speed before smashing them together.

Brookhaven National Laboratory/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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