The giant Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most expensive scientific experiment, will be shut down for at least two months, scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, in Geneva said Saturday.
According to a press statement, "the most likely cause of the problem was a faulty electrical connection between two magnets, which probably melted at high current leading to mechanical failure."
The mishap resulted in "a large helium leak" into the collider's tunnel.
The leak means that the LHC will be down for at least two months, because workers must now warm up the faulty sector of the tunnel in order to repair it. The liquid helium is used to cool the LHC's magnets, which guide protons and accelerate them so they can be smashed together, down to within 1.9 kelvins (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) of absolute zero.
CERN researchers must warm the damaged section so they can fix the problem and this will take a while. The operating temperature of the LHC is of minus 271.3 degrees Celsius (minus 456.3 degrees Fahrenheit).
CERN officials said a full investigation is currently under way.
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