CERN · beyond the screenYour TV was a
Your TV was a
particle accelerator.
And here is its grown-up version, 27 kilometres of pipe where protons race at almost the speed of light. Meet the world's largest machine in ten facts, one at a time.
LHC · 27 km
√s 13.6 TeV11,245 rev/s
The best facts
CERN in ten numbers
Use the left and right arrow keys, or click a fact below. The console plays on its own, hover to pause it.
01 / 10
0
kilometres of tunnel, 100 m underground
A 27 km ring
The world's largest accelerator sits on the border of France and Switzerland. Protons lap it over 11,000 times a second.
Scaleillustrative visual
01 / 10
Popular-science material. Figures are approximate and depend on the accelerator run.
From the CRT to the particle cosmos
Go back to basics and see how electrons really flow.