Brilliant Start-up for the LHC - Congratulations to the machine of superlatives

A historic moment in the CERN Control Centre: the beam was successfully steered around the accelerator. (Photo: CERN)

It was a brilliant start: At 10:28 on Wednesday the first protons reached the goal. In less than an hour the first particle beam had finished its lap through the 27-kilometre-long LHC accelerator below ground in Geneva. “This accomplishment should have its place in the Guinness Book of Records!” Rolf-Dieter Heuer comments. “DESY congratulates CERN and all the people involved in the LHC on the fantastic start-up of the new ‘Weltmaschine’.”

The LHC’s technicians, engineers and scientists have produced even more records: the world’s largest machine, the planet’s fastest proton racetrack, the biggest and most advanced detectors ever built…

With the LHC, a new and exciting era in particle physics is about to begin. DESY is part of it as it is involved in the two experiments ATLAS and CMS as well as in the operation of the most powerful accelerator of all times.