News Particle Physics

CERN shutters the Large Hadron Collider for a major transformation

The particle smasher famously enabled discovery of the Higgs boson

Scientific equipment with "LHC" written on it is pictured in a long tunnel.

The Large Hadron Collider accelerated protons in its underground tunnel (shown). It’s now been shut down in preparation for a major upgrade.

© CERN (CC-BY-4.0)

By Emily Conover

It’s the end of an era for particle physicists: They just said good-bye to the famed Large Hadron Collider — in its current form, anyway.