CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is a research organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. It is located near Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is famous for its Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator where scientists study the fundamental particles and forces that make up the universe.

A particle accelerator is a scientific instrument that accelerates charged particles, such as protons or electrons, to high speeds and energies. These particles are then directed into collisions with other particles or targets, allowing scientists to study the fundamental properties of matter.

Particle accelerators come in various sizes and types, but they typically consist of a series of electromagnetic fields and radio frequency cavities that propel and steer the particles along a predetermined path.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is one of the most powerful and well-known particle accelerators. It consists of a 27-kilometer ring of superconducting magnets buried underground, where protons are accelerated to nearly the speed of light and then collided at four different interaction points, where detectors capture the results of these collisions for analysis.

CERN: Portals in the Sky and Other High Strangeness

A Quick History of the Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland opened in 2008, with the first beam circulated on September 10 of that year. The goal of any collider is to accelerate particles at incredible speeds, smashing them together and detecting the results of those collisions.

What scientists hope to find by doing so are new particles or reactions, new information on how the universe works at a fundamental level.

The first true collisions happened in 2010. When the LHC first began operation, it reached a combined energy level of 7 teraelectronvolts, or TeV. It’s been upgraded over the years, most recently reaching 13 TeV, reportedly the “present world record.”

The greatest achievement of the LHC so far is undoubtedly the discovery of the Higgs Boson. As CERN themselves reported, “On 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announced they had each observed a new particle in the mass region around 125 GeV.”

The particle was “consistent with the Higgs boson,” and in 2013 François Englert and Peter Higgs received the Nobel prize in physics for the discovery. In 2011, Fermilab posted a good overview of the nature of the Higgs Boson and Higgs field.

Theories surrounding CERN

End of the World: Some conspiracy theories suggest that experiments at CERN, particularly those conducted in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), could lead to catastrophic events such as the creation of black holes or the destruction of Earth. 

Portal to Other Dimensions: There are claims that CERN’s experiments could open portals to other dimensions or unleash dark forces. 

•  In 2015, Yahoo News reported on footage of an alleged vortex forming over Geneva, what they referred to as a “UFO gateway.” In the footage, clouds swirl into a point, as if it were a black hole, and a number of small bright orbs can be seen “entering it.” The vortex then vanishes. The UFO portal had allegedly erupted directly over the Large Hadron Collider. Unfortunately, despite media coverage, this footage turned out to be CGI. 
• A Portal to Hell? In August 2016, a video appeared online that seemed to depict a ritual sacrifice on the CERN grounds, right in front of the statue of Shiva, the Hindu deity  In Hinduism, Shiva is one of the principal deities, often referred to as the destroyer and transformer within the Trimurti . In the video, you can see a number of cloaked figures gathered near the statue, surrounding a woman.
  
  The video is taken from the point-of-view of an unsuspecting onlooker, who decides to run for it after realizing what’s about to go down.Creepy
  According to the Guardian, this was a hoax According to their report “pranking scientists” were suspected.

• Strange activity: in the skies above CERN is the incident of November 2009, when an Iberworld Airbus A330-300 allegedly vanished temporarily. As the story goes, the plane was carrying 170 passengers, and had been heading toward Santa Cruz, Bolivia, when it seemingly disappeared mid-flight. The plane was then reported to reappear roughly 5,500 miles away at Tenerife North Airport on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. According to an Inquisitr article published in 2016, some believe CERN’s Large Hadron Collider may have been the culprit of this mysterious turn of events, given that it had just begun circulating beams the previous year, and was preparing to do so again.
  
  Prior to November 2009, the LHC had temporarily been out of commission due to a malfunction dubbed the “Quench incident,” which occurred on September 19, 2008. Liquid helium vented into the collider’s tunnel, damaging 53 superconducting magnets.
  
  Purveyors of the Airbus theory believe the strange event may have happened during the preparations for the LHC’s relaunch in early November. According to the theory, scientists at CERN had accidentally produced some kind of “time warp” during one of the LHC’s startups. They immediately shut everything down. LHC Machine Coordinator Dr. Mike Lamond said officially that the shutdown had been caused by a bird that dropped “a bit of baguette,” causing the magnets to heat up and almost result in another “quench” incident, as reported by the Telegraph on November 6, 2009. And yet, some didn’t buy this explanation, believing instead that it was a cover-up to prevent the public from finding out that the LHC had “accidentally opened a time portal,”

The so-called “time warp,” or so the story continues, was caused by the LHC distorting Earth’s magnetic field, creating a “time wave” that reverberated through the planet’s core. The wave passed through the Gate of the Sun, an ancient megalithic stone arch in Bolivia.

The  “time wave” then continued, until it made contact with the Iberworld Airbus, temporarily displacing it in time and space. According to the bizarre tale, all 170 passengers, along with the plane, spontaneously teleported 5,500 miles from Bolivia to the Canary Islands, where they were able to land safely, though confused. 

Symbolism: Some conspiracy theorists focus on the symbolism used in CERN’s logos and artwork, suggesting that they contain occult or satanic imagery. One example often cited is the CERN logo itself, which features a stylized depiction of the accelerator’s ring with a series of lines that resemble a stylized “666” — a number often associated with the devil in Christian theology. 

• As Metro reported in January 2017, some bloggers online believe that CERN’s experiments are in fact an attempt to build “the kingdom of the antichrist,” who will eventually step through the portal and “rule our planet.”

 In January 2019, CERN officials revealed their potential plan for a 62 mile circular collider. The project, dubbed the Future Circular Collider, would cost around $10 billion. Compared to the LHC, it would be absolutely gigantic.

  On Friday 5 April, at 6.25 p.m., the LHC Engineer-in-Charge at the CERN Control Centre (CCC) announced that stable beams were back in the Large Hadron Collider, marking the official start of the 2024 physics data-taking season. The third year of LHC Run 3 promises six months of 13.6 TeV proton collisions at an even higher luminosity than before, meaning more collisions for the experiments to take data from. This will be followed by a period of lead ion collisions in October.