After a two-year shutdown to make improvements and upgrades, the Large Hadron Collider is back online as scientists embark on a new mission to unlock elemental mysteries of the universe. For the first time since 2013, scientists from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) this weekend shot particle beams through the enormous machine's 16.8-mile tunnel.
"It's fantastic to see it going so well after two years and such a major overhaul," Rolf Heuer, CERN's director general, said.
The largest and most powerful particle accelerator in the world, the LHC discovered the elusive Higgs boson particle two years ago. Researchers now hope to use the machine to reveal another theoretical substance, dark matter, for the first time.
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