World's most powerful particle collider starts operation

A technician walks under the core magnet of the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN (Centre Europeen de Recherche Nucleaire) in the French village of Cessy, near Geneva March 22, 2007. International physicists at a vast underground complex near Geneva launched a 20-year project on Wednesday to re-enact the "Big Bang" to try to explain the origins of the universe and how it came to harbor life.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Two technicians assemble an element of the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN (Centre Europeen de Recherche Nucleaire) in the French village of Cessy, near Geneva March 22, 2007. CMS is part of five experiments which, from the end of 2007 on, will study what happens when beams of particles collide in the 27 km (16.8 miles) long underground ring LHC (Large Hadron Collider).(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The magnet core of the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid), a 1,920 tons element, reaches the bottom of the experimental cavern after being lowered 100 meters at the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN (Centre Europeen de Recherche Nucleaire) in the French village of Cessy, near Geneva February 28, 2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The magnet core (R) of the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid), a 1,920 tons element, reaches the bottom of the experimental cavern after being lowered 100 meters at the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN (Centre Europeen de Recherche Nucleaire) in the French village of Cessy, near Geneva, February 28, 2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

GENEVA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The most powerful particle collider in the world on Wednesday smoothly started operation with an aim to recreate conditions just after the Big Bang, which is believed to give birth to the universe.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is housed in a 27-kilometer underground tunnel at the Swiss-French border, was built by the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), the world's leading laboratory for particle physics.

International scientists at the organization seek to use the highly sophisticated instrument to collide two beams of particles at close to the speed of light, so that conditions just after the Big Bang, which happened some 13.7 billion years ago, could be to a large extent recreated.

Through analysis of the results of powerful particle collisions, they were expected to unlock many secrets of modern physics and answer questions about the universe and its origins.

The first beam of protons was fired into the ring-shaped LHC shortly after 9:30 a.m. local time (0730 GMT).

And it took less than one hour for the beam to be successfully guided through the full 27-kilometer length of the tightly-sealed Collider 100 meters beneath the Cern headquarters.

"It's a fantastic moment," said LHC project leader Lyn Evans after the first beam was successfully circulated around the collider. "We can now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and evolution of the universe."

Scientists later successfully circulated another beam around the chamber of the LHC in the opposite direction.

They will eventually fire two beams at near the speed of light in opposite directions around the tunnel. Then giant magnets will be used to cross the beams and cause protons to collide.

Evans said Wednesday's tests were "a great start." But he cautioned that the LHC was a machine of enormous complexity and can go wrong at any time.

He didn't want to set a date for the big collisions, but said he expected scientists could make such experiments "within a few months."

Physicists around the world will be watching whether the collisions recreate on a miniature scale the heat and energy of the Big Bang, a theory of the origin of the universe that dominates scientific thinking.

Cern has repeatedly refuted suggestions by some critics that the experiment could create tiny black holes of intense gravity that could suck in the whole planet.

"It's nonsense," said James Gillies, chief spokesman for Cern.

As the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the LHC can produce beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine, and around 30 times more intense when it reaches design performance, probably by 2010.

Some 10,000 scientists from around the world have participated in the construction of the 10 billion Swiss franc (9.5 billion U.S. dollars) instrument, which started in 1994.