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The universe is filled with particles we don't know about that are governed by rules we don't yet understand.
But by smashing familiar particles together at nearly the speed of light using large machines aptly named particle accelerators, physicists can sometimes glimpse the invisible.
Large - Hadron - Collider - Discovery - Higgs
The Large Hadron Collider, perhaps best known for the discovery of the elusive Higgs boson, which explains how other particles get their mass, has so far failed to find particles that go beyond the Standard Model — the currently accepted particle-physics guide for how the forces and particles in the universe interact.
All that would be fine, albeit not so exciting, if the Standard Model could explain the universe and its inner workings. But the model falls short — for example, it doesn't account for dark matter, an invisible force that exerts a gravitational pull, that physicists think — but don't know for sure — exists.
Hope - Machine - Clues - Matter - Universe
The hope is that a bigger, more powerful machine might be able to provide clues as to what this dark matter is made of and why the universe is made up of more matter than its weird cousin antimatter (even though it should have started with equal amounts). The new accelerator, which would be named the Future Circular Collider (FCC), would be 50 to 62 miles (80 to 100 km) long, meaning it would provide more distance over which particles can speed up and gain energy, according to a conceptual design report released today (Jan. 16) and crafted by 1,300 researchers from over 150 universities.
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