What is shown above?
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Above we could see what is known as the 'Elena Antiproton Decelerator'. Basically, its aim is to slow down antiprotons so they can create anti-Helium (by combining an antiproton with a positron). This gives rise to further research on the world of antimatter to study its various properties
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What is shown above?
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Above we could see what is known as the 'DA Antiproton Decelerator'. It does the exact same thing as the 'Elena Decelerator'. The difference is that this decelerator is underground, less powerful and older. The 'Elena Decelerator' is a more recent machine thus, more advanced and more efficient.
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What is shown above?
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Here we see one of CERN's thousands of scientists working in the antimatter factory. He is currently doing checks on different parts of the decelerator to ensure everything is working fine.
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Why are we decelerating particles when we're already accelerating them?
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Besides accelerating indeed we are decelerating them. We are accelerating millions of hadrons in the 'LHC' and only a few collisions are made. So we try our best to recycle the rest of the other particles which are still whole and did not collide. This is done by transferring the particles to decelerators such as the 'Elena' and 'AD' machines to do the work. They could then be stored through a complex process and reused for future tests rather than wasted.
Fun Fact!
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Did you know that antimatter is the most expensive element on our planet? 1 milligram of antimatter costs $100 billion!
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Cyclotrons have also lead to the advancement of Chemotherapy by reducing the half life's of radioactive isotopes to treat cancer patients.
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(You may now go to the 'CERN Data Centre' section)