Brazil builds large particle accelerator the size of a football field
The Sirius particle accelerator can accelerate a beam of electrons 1/35 the width of a human hair to speeds approaching the speed of light.
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The Sirius particle accelerator is as large as the Maracana stadium. |
Brazil has officially started construction of a particle accelerator the size of the Maracana stadium in the Campinas region, about 90 km from Sao Paulo city.AFPThe project is expected to help Brazil achieve breakthrough achievements and progress in many important fields such as medicine, energy, electronics, archaeology and the environment.
The particle accelerator, called Sirius, cost an estimated $447 million to build. It is a 518-meter-long circular machine. Its cyclic synchrotron technology allows Sirius to accelerate a beam of electrons (1/35th the thickness of a human hair) to speeds approaching the speed of light inside vacuum tunnels, with the help of powerful electromagnets.
Sirius is capable of producing synchrotron light, a source of electromagnetic radiation, with such intensity that it can reveal the microscopic structure of both organic and inorganic materials such as proteins, viruses, rocks or alloys at high resolution. According to G1 News, the machine can shorten studies that would take 10 hours to complete with current technology to just 10 seconds.
"People always say Brazil is the country of the future. But with this project, I want to say the future has already arrived," Temer stressed in a statement. The Sirius particle accelerator is expected to be completed and operational in 2021.