Arctic sea-ice growth slower than ever

ESA - CryoSat Mission logo.

30 November 2016

ESA’s CryoSat satellite

ESA’s CryoSat satellite has found that the Arctic has one of the lowest volumes of sea ice of any November, matching record lows in 2011 and 2012. Early winter growth of ice in the Arctic has been about 10% lower than usual.

CryoSat carries a radar altimeter that can measure the surface height variation of ice in fine detail, allowing scientists to record changes in its volume with unprecedented accuracy.

These observations are vital for tracking climate change and are an essential resource for maritime operators who increasingly navigate the icy waters of Earth’s polar regions.

The US National Snow and Ice Data Centre reported that the area of the Arctic covered by sea ice fell to 4.1 million sq km in September this year – slightly less than the sea-ice extent in September 2011.

November sea-ice thickness

But CryoSat shows that the ice was thicker at the end of summer than in most other years, at 116 cm on average. This means there was substantially more ice this year than in 2011.

Thicker ice can occur if melting is lower, or if snowfall or ice compaction is higher.

However, the Arctic usually gains about 161 cubic km of ice per day in November, but this year’s growth has been about 10% lower, at 139 cubic km per day, with a total ice volume estimated to have accumulated to 10 500 cubic km by the end of the month.

This would essentially tie with conditions in the Novembers of 2011, when levels were at their lowest on record for this time of the year.

Although sea ice in the central Arctic is currently thicker than it was in 2011, there is far less ice in more southerly regions such as the Beaufort, East Siberian and Kara Seas.

“Because CryoSat can measure Arctic sea ice thickness in autumn, it gives us a much clearer picture of how it has fared during summer,” said Rachel Tilling, at the UK’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), who came to these conclusions.

“Although sea ice usually grows rapidly after the minimum extent each September, this year’s growth has been far slower than we’d expect – probably because this winter has been warmer than usual in the Arctic.”

2011–16 November Arctic sea-ice volume

As demand for information on Arctic conditions increases, CryoSat has become an essential source of information for polar stakeholders, ranging from ice forecasting services to scientists studying the effects of climate change.

“In its short, six years of life, we have learnt more about Arctic sea ice from CryoSat than from any other satellite mission,” commented CPOM Director and principal scientific advisor to the CryoSat mission, Professor Andrew Shepherd.

“To understand the role that sea ice plays in the climate system, and the restrictions it places on maritime operations, we must ensure that its measurements are continued into the future.”

CPOM plans to release a complete assessment of 2016 sea ice conditions in the coming weeks.

Related links:

Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling: http://www.cpom.org/index.html

University of Leeds: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/

For more information about CryoSat, visit: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/CryoSat

Image, Animation, Text, Credits: ESA/CPOM.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

CERN - A new ring to slow down antimatter

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

Nov. 29, 2016

Image above: The new deceleration ring ELENA will slow down antimatter particles further than ever to improve the efficiency of experiments studying antimatter. (Image: Maximilien Brice/CERN).

You could mistake ELENA for a miniature accelerator. But, unlike most accelerators, it’s housed in a hangar and you can take it all in in just a single glance. The biggest difference though, is that it doesn’t accelerate particles, but decelerates them.

CERN’s brand-new machine measures just 30 metres in circumference and has just begun its first tests with beam.

The ELENA (Extra Low ENergy Antiproton) deceleration ring will be connected to the Antiproton Decelerator (AD), which has been in service since 2000. The AD is a unique facility that enables the study of antimatter.

Antimatter can be thought of as a mirror image of matter and it remains a mystery for physicists. For example, matter and antimatter should have been created in equal quantities at the time of the Big Bang— the event at the origin of our Universe. But antimatter seems to have disappeared from the Universe. Where it has gone is one of the many questions physicists are trying to solve with the AD machine.

The 182-metre-circumference ring decelerates antiprotons (the anti-particles of protons) to 5.3 MeV, the lowest energy possible in a machine of this size. The antiprotons are then sent to experiments where they are studied or used to produce atoms of antimatter. The slower the antiprotons (i.e. the less energy they have), the easier it is for the experiments to study or manipulate them.

And this is where ELENA comes in. Coupled with the AD, this small ring will slow the antiprotons down even further, reducing their energy by a factor of 50, from 5.3 MeV to just 0.1 MeV. In addition, the density of the beams will be improved. The experiments will be able to trap 10 to 100 times more antiprotons, improving efficiency and paving the way for new studies.

A new ring to slow down antimatter

Video above: A timelapse video showing the entire construction of the decelerating ring (Video: Noemi Caraban/ CERN).

Decelerating beams is just as complicated as accelerating them. The slower the particles, the harder it is to control their trajectories. At low energy, beams are more sensitive to outside interference, such as the earth’s magnetic field. ELENA is therefore equipped with magnets that are optimised to operate with very weak fields. An electron cooling system concentrates and decelerates the beams.

Now that the components of the new decelerator have been installed, the teams have begun the first tests with beam.

“After five years of development and construction, this is a very important stage. We are going to continue the tests over the coming weeks to see if everything is working as planned,” explains Christian Carli, ELENA project leader. “GBAR, the first experiment to be connected to ELENA, should receive its first antiprotons in 2017.”

The other experiments will be connected during the second long shutdown of CERN’s accelerators in 2019-2020. ELENA will supply antiprotons to four experiments in parallel.

Several experiments are studying antimatter and its properties: ALPHA, ASACUSA, ATRAP and BASE. GBAR and AEGIS are working more specifically on the effect of gravity on antimatter.

You can read more about ELENA in the the CERN Courier: http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/66893

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 22 Member States.

Related links:

Antimatter: http://home.cern/topics/antimatter

ELENA: http://home.cern/about/accelerators/antiproton-decelerator

Antiproton Decelerator (AD): http://home.cern/about/accelerators/antiproton-decelerator

ALPHA: http://home.cern/about/experiments/alpha

ASACUSA: http://home.cern/about/experiments/asacusa

ATRAP: http://home.cern/about/experiments/atrap

BASE: http://home.cern/about/experiments/base

GBAR: https://gbar.web.cern.ch/GBAR/public/

AEGIS: http://home.cern/about/experiments/aegis

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: http://home.cern/

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Corinne Pralavorio.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

First views of Mars show potential for ESA’s new orbiter

ESA & ROSCOSMOS - ExoMars Mission patch.

29 November 2016

ESA’s new ExoMars orbiter has tested its suite of instruments in orbit for the first time, hinting at a great potential for future observations.

The Trace Gas Orbiter, or TGO, a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos, arrived at Mars on 19 October. Its elliptical orbit takes it from 230–310 km above the surface to around 98 000 km every 4.2 days.

First images from ExoMars

It spent the last two orbits during 20–28 November testing its four science instruments for the first time since arrival, and making important calibration measurements.

Data from the first orbit has been made available for this release to illustrate the range of observations to be expected once the craft arrives into its near-circular 400 km-altitude orbit late next year.

Arsia Chasmata

TGO’s main goal is to make a detailed inventory of rare gases that make up less than 1% of the atmosphere’s volume, including methane, water vapour, nitrogen dioxide and acetylene.

Of high interest is methane, which on Earth is produced primarily by biological activity, and to a smaller extent by geological processes such as some hydrothermal reactions. 

The two instruments tasked with this role have now demonstrated they can take highly sensitive spectra of the atmosphere. During the test observations last week, the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite focused on carbon dioxide, which makes up a large volume of the planet's atmosphere, while the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery instrument homed in on water.

They also coordinated observations with ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, as they will in the future.

First look at the atmosphere

Complementary measurements by the orbiter’s neutron detector, FREND, will measure the flow of neutrons from the planet’s surface. Created by the impact of cosmic rays, the way in which they are emitted and their speed on arriving at TGO points to the composition of the surface layer, in particular to water or ice just below the surface.

The instrument has been active at various times during the cruise to Mars and on recent occasions while flying close to the surface could identify the relative difference between regions of known higher and lower neutron flux, although it will take several months to produce statistically significant results.

Similarly, the instrument showed a clear increase in neutron detections when close to Mars compared to when it was further away.

First detection of atmospheric carbon dioxide

The different capabilities of the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System were also demonstrated, with 11 images captured during the first close flyby on 22 November.

At closest approach the spacecraft was 235 km from the surface, and flying over the Hebes Chasma region, just north of the Valles Marineris canyon system. These are some of the closest images that will ever be taken of the planet by TGO, given that the spacecraft’s final orbit will be at around 400 km altitude.

First ExoMars stereo reconstruction

The camera team also completed a quick first test of producing a 3D reconstruction of a region in Noctis Labyrinthus, from a stereo pair of images.

Although the images are impressively sharp, data collected during this test period will help to improve the camera’s onboard software as well as the quality of the images after processing.

“We are extremely happy and proud to see that all the instruments are working so well in the Mars environment, and this first impression gives a fantastic preview of what’s to come when we start collecting data for real at the end of next year,” says Håkan Svedhem, ESA’s TGO Project Scientist.

First neutron flux measurements

“Not only is the spacecraft itself clearly performing well, but I am delighted to see the various teams working together so effectively in order to give us this impressive insight.

Mars close-up

“We have identified areas that can be fine-tuned well in advance of the main science mission, and we look forward to seeing what this amazing science orbiter will do in the future.”

ExoMars science orbit 1

Notes for Editors:

More information about the imaging campaign is available in the University of Bern’s press release “CaSSIS sends first images from Mars orbit”: http://www.unibe.ch/news/media_news/media_relations_e/media_releases/2016_e/media_releases_2016/cassis_sends_first_images_from_mars_orbit/index_eng.html

More information about NOMAD’s first observations is available via the press release “NOMAD's first view of the martian atmosphere”: http://aeronomie.be/en/news-press/2016-11-28-nomad-first-results.htm

More information about ACS and FREND’s observations are available via the IKI ExoMars website (in russian): http://exomars.cosmos.ru/

A graphic summarising when the TGO instruments were operating during the 20–24 November orbit is provided above. 

Related links:

Robotic exploration of Mars: http://exploration.esa.int/

ExoMars Factsheet: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/ExoMars_Factsheet

ExoMars frequently asked questions: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/ExoMars_frequently_asked_questions

ExoMars brochure: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA_Publications/ESA_Publications_Brochures/ESA_BR-327_EXOMARS_2016

Mars Express: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express

Roscosmos: http://en.federalspace.ru/

ExoMars at IKI: http://exomars.cosmos.ru/

Thales Alenia Space: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/space/space

NASA In 2016 ExoMars orbiter (Electra radio): http://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/future/exomarsorbiter2016/

Where on Mars?: http://whereonmars.co/

ExoMars for broadcasters: http://www.esa.int/esatv/Transmissions/2016/10/ExoMars_at_Mars_live_coverage

Images, Graphics, Video, Text, Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/ExoMars/CaSSIS/UniBE; mosaicking tool: AutoStitch (University of British Columbia)/NOMAD/BISA/IAA/INAF/OU/ACS/IKI/FREND/ESA ExoMars TGO Project Scientist/Håkan Svedhem/ESA Science and Robotic Exploration Communication Officer/Markus Bauer.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Gone with the Wind: Mission Conclusion for Instrument to Monitor Ocean Winds

NASA - ISS-RapidScat Mission logo.

Nov. 28, 2016

Image above: A view of the removal of the RapidScat Nadir Adapter from the SpaceX-4 Dragon trunk and installation of the adapter onto the Columbus Exposed Facility Unit (EFU).The RapidScat instrument was the first piece of technology to be robotically assembled in space since the station’s construction, as well as the first scatterometer to be able to cross-calibrate with other instruments in orbit. Image Credit: NASA.

On Sept. 21, 2014, NASA scientists and engineers launched RapidScat toward the orbiting International Space Station, 250 miles above the Earth’s surface, with a few objectives in mind: improve weather forecasting on Earth, provide cross-calibration for all international satellites that monitor ocean winds, and improve estimates of how ocean winds change throughout the day, around the globe.

Animation above: RapidScat’s radar technology used microwaves, bounced off the ocean’s surface, to determine wind speed and direction. Animation Credit: NASA.

Following the 2009 end of mission of QuikScat, a similar instrument on a free-flying satellite in operation before RapidScat, NASA was challenged with the task of engineering a replacement device – and quickly – as the data QuikScat provided had helped meteorologists to predict weather patterns and prepare for large storm systems for more than a decade. Using the existing data and power services of the station and hardware initially built as a spare for QuikScat, RapidScat not only recreated its predecessors work, but greatly improved the timeliness of data transmissions and the potential for cross-calibration of other sensors designed to measure sea-surface winds. RapidScat data was used all over the world by government laboratories and meteorological agencies, scientists, private companies, students and individuals to track the progression of a storm’s strength.

Image above: On Jan. 28, 2015, ISS-RapidScat saw the Nor'easter's strongest sustained winds (red) between 56 and 67 mph just off-shore from Eastern Cape Cod. Image Credit: NASA.

Because of its ability to monitor weather systems around the world, RapidScat played a vital role in storm prediction and allowed maritime and air traffic time to avoid potentially dangerous weather conditions. RapidScat’s radar technology used microwaves, bounced off the ocean’s surface, to determine wind speed and direction. Choppy, large waves send back stronger signals, indicating that heavy winds are present in the area.

RapidScat observations played an essential role in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather forecasting by aiding in their ability to measure temporal changes of wind fields and allowing them to study changes within one hour in high latitudes, compared to six hours with previous instruments.

Image above: ISS-RapidScat data on a North Atlantic extratropical cyclone, as seen by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System used by weather forecasters at NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/NOAA.

Wind speed is not only important in the prediction of bad weather and investigation of global wind circulation patterns, but also helps organizations like NASA to plan launches, flights and landings of space- and aircrafts. RapidScat aided in the successful NASA Orion test flight by providing near-real-time wind speeds, allowing NASA to choose a safe landing zone for the spacecraft.

The station’s orbit is not synchronized with Earth's rotation, as all other space borne scatterometers currently are. This made the station an ideal home for the RapidScat instrument because its orbit allowed it to intersect and cross-calibrate with the international constellation of scatterometers. This paved the way to measure and compare data from various scatterometers, together providing wind measurements multiple times each day, giving meteorologists and other scientists a better look into how storms developed. Moving forward, these organizations will use data transmitted from the newly-launched ScatSat, an ocean wind sensor instrument of the Indian Space Research Organization.

ScienceCasts: A Giant Among Earth Satellites

Video above: The weekend launch of ISS-RapidScat onboard SpaceX-4 has kickstarted a new era for the International Space Station as a giant Earth-observing satellite. Video Credit: NASA.

RapidScat completed its successful two-year mission, outlasting its original decommission date before suffering a power loss in mid-August. Although RapidScat is no longer transmitting data back to Earth, the station hosts many other Earth-observation tools and investigations such as Crew Earth Observations, an investigation which arms crew members with handheld digital cameras to observe how the Earth changes over time, from human-caused changes to natural disasters (including storm systems); the Cyclone Intensity Measurements from the ISS or CyMISS ( also known as the Tropical Cyclone project), a Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS)-funded Earth-Observation experiment that seeks to develop detailed information on tropical storm structure to better estimate storm intensity, which will help government agencies to better prepare communities for impending natural disasters; and the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS), a lidar instrument measuring atmospheric profiles of aerosols and clouds to better understand their properties and interactions, as well as providing data useful to improving climate change models.

For a more in-depth look at the RapidScat mission, visit: http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/RapidScat/

Related links:

ScatSat: http://isro.gov.in/Spacecraft/scatsat-1

Crew Earth Observations: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/86.html

Cyclone Intensity Measurements from the ISS or CyMISS: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1973.html

Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS): http://www.nasa.gov/cats

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Kristine Rainey/JSC/Jenny Howard.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Tiny Mimas, Huge Rings

NASA - Cassini Mission to Saturn patch.

Nov. 28, 2016

Saturn's icy moon Mimas is dwarfed by the planet's enormous rings.

Because Mimas (near lower left) appears tiny by comparison, it might seem that the rings would be far more massive, but this is not the case. Scientists think the rings are no more than a few times as massive as Mimas, or perhaps just a fraction of Mimas' mass. Cassini is expected to determine the mass of Saturn's rings to within just a few hundredths of Mimas' mass as the mission winds down by tracking radio signals from the spacecraft as it flies close to the rings. 

The rings, which are made of small, icy particles spread over a vast area, are extremely thin – generally no thicker than the height of a house. Thus, despite their giant proportions, the rings contain a surprisingly small amount of material.

Mimas is 246 miles (396 kilometers) wide.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 6 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken in red light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 21, 2016.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 564,000 miles (907,000 kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 31 degrees. Image scale is 34 miles (54 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org and ESA's website http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

Image, Text, Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Tony Greicius.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Mars labyrinth

ESA - Mars Express Mission patch.

Nov. 28, 2016

Adamas Labyrinthus

This labyrinth-like system of troughs and plateaus was imaged by ESA’s Mars Express on 21 June 2016.

It shows part of a region known as Adamas Labyrinthus, which is found in Utopia Planitia in the northern lowlands of Mars. Here, the randomly shaped blocks vary in size from 5–20 km across and are separated by cross-cutting troughs with widths of up to 2 km.

The pattern is similar to that observed in some offshore locations on Earth, supporting an idea that the scene here results from the deposition of fine-grained sediments in an ocean.

The formation of such polygons with surrounding troughs has been attributed to a number of varied processes, including collapse under gravity, the expulsion of fluid from the porous sediments as they are being compacted, low friction between the sediments resulting in mass wasting, and local tectonic activity extending the blocks apart. The underlying topography of the surface below may also play a role.

One idea for the scene shown here on Mars is that sediment slurries were deposited during catastrophic flooding on an ice-rich surface, and contracted into the polygons as the sediments were compacted and expelled their fluids.

Later, tectonic activity and the gradual sublimation of buried ices could have caused gradual widening and deepening of the troughs between the giant polygons.

Icy material certainly played a role in this region’s appearance at some point: the larger impact craters show characteristic “pancake” debris blankets, which indicate heating and melting of a subsurface ice layer at the time of the impact.

In addition, some of the troughs show dark deposits, which may be ash layers being revealed from below a cover of dust-covered ice as Sun-facing slopes are gently heated.

Mars Express

The ground resolution of this image is about 15 m per pixel and the images are centered at 39ºN / 101ºE. For more images and details of this region, see the associated image release by the DLR German Aerospace Agency and by Freie Universität Berlin on 8 September.

For more information about Mars Express mission, visit: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express

Mars Express overview: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express_overview

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO/ATG-Medialab.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

CERN - NA64 hunts the mysterious dark photon & LHC tunnel’s robot

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

25 Nov 2016

One of the biggest puzzles in physics is that eighty-five percent of the matter in our universe is “dark”: it does not interact with the photons of the conventional electromagnetic force and is therefore invisible to our eyes and telescopes. Although the composition and origin of dark matter are a mystery, we know it exists because astronomers observe its gravitational pull on ordinary visible matter such as stars and galaxies.

Some theories suggest that, in addition to gravity, dark matter particles could interact with visible matter through a new force, which has so far escaped detection. Just as the electromagnetic force is carried by the photon, this dark force is thought to be transmitted by a particle called “dark” photon which is predicted to act as a mediator between visible and dark matter.

Image above: An overview of the NA64 experimental set-up at CERN. NA64 hunts down dark photons, hypothetic dark matter particles. (Image: Maximilien Brice/CERN).

“To use a metaphor, an otherwise impossible dialogue between two people not speaking the same language (visible and dark matter) can be enabled by a mediator (the dark photon), who understands one language and speaks the other one,” explains Sergei Gninenko, spokesperson for the NA64 collaboration.

CERN’s NA64 experiment looks for signatures of this visible-dark interaction using a simple but powerful physics concept: the conservation of energy. A beam of electrons, whose initial energy is known very precisely, is aimed at a detector. Interactions between incoming electrons and atomic nuclei in the detector produce visible photons. The energy of these photons is measured and it should be equivalent to that of the electrons.  However, if the dark photons exist, they will escape the detector and carry away a large fraction of the initial electron energy.

Hunting the mysterious dark photon: the NA64 experiment

Video above: View of the NA64 experiment set-up. (Video: Christoph Madsen/Noemi Caraban/CERN).

Therefore, the signature of the dark photon is an event registered in the detector with a large amount of “missing energy” that cannot be attributed to a process involving only ordinary particles, thus providing a strong hint of the dark photon’s existence.

If confirmed, the existence of the dark photon would represent a breakthrough in our understanding the longstanding dark matter mystery.

Meet TIM, the LHC tunnel’s robot
 

TIM the Robot: Monitoring the LHC tunnel

Video Credits: Noemi Caraban/Ronaldus Suykerbuyk/Christoph Madsen/CERN.

The name’s TIM, Robot TIM – meet the spy patrolling the 27-km tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). TIM, the Train Inspection Monorail, is a mini vehicle transporting a set of instruments along tracks suspended from the tunnel’s ceiling. This smart machine is used for real-time monitoring of the LHC tunnel: the tunnel structure, the oxygen percentage, the communication bandwidth and the temperature.

Image above: TIM uses the tracks of the former Large Electron Positron (LEP) monorail. This image from 1991 shows the LEP monorail, which carried materials and workers when the tunnel housed the LEP collider. LEP was closed down in 2000 to make way for the construction of the LHC in the same tunnel. (Image: Patrice Loiez/CERN).

TIM provides visual and infrared imaging of the LHC tunnel and can move up to 6 km/h. It can also pull small wagons for specific tasks.

Two TIM units are currently running in the LHC tunnel, parked in a service tunnel of one of the LHC experiment, waiting for commands.

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 22 Member States.

Related links:

Dark matter: http://home.cern/about/physics/dark-matter

Large Hadron Collider (LHC): http://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider

Large Electron Positron (LEP): http://home.cern/about/accelerators/large-electron-positron-collider

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: http://home.cern/

Images (mentioned), Videos (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Stefania Pandolfi/Corinne Pralavorio.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch