The.. Higgs Boson

Higgs — at last!

By Alexandra Witze

September 6, 2012 

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/09/higgs-at-last/

Science never stops, it continues all the time on everything no matter if what one is researching on has already been found or not. It is like when they first discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen, they thought they found the biggest treasure however when they looked around later on they discovered even more important objects and discoveries. And that is just the case of this exploration. After long investigations, scientists have finally found a particle near Geneva,Switzerland, the particle called the Higgs Boson. You may think this particle was easily found under the ground, but you are wrong. Scientists created this by slamming together other particles and the high energy explosion created this particle for a flash, but in less than a second turned into other material. 

We all know that:

Everything has molecules made of MASS

Molecules-> Atoms-> Fundamental particles

All of these fundamental particles were found except for the Higgs Boson, and after studying it and checking it in the laboratory CERN scientists were proud to announce their discovery on the 4th July.

 

 It took the biggest machine of all to find the smallest particle:

 

Scientists use math to understand particles in the universe and the forces that hold them together, this is called the STANDARD MODEL. Higgs fields are created as well, these influence any particles that go through it, it is very hard to search for them, however for the higgs fiel to exist they will look for a particle, the Higgs Boson. 

Higgs Boson:

• carries mass
• without it there would be no: mass/stars/planets/trees/computers nor you.
• 1 Higgs Boson has the weight of 133 protons making it one of the most massive particles known

Scientists however are not done studying this, they just started.

'Physicists may soon feel the same way about the Higgs. “We’re way out on the edge of understanding,” says Incandela. “This is exploration.”'

I liked reading about this article because it is new and something that they were searching for since more than 2 years now. It was also interesting because if it didn't exist there would be no mass.. and no us.