WHAT IF WE BUILT A SUPER-COLLIDER AROUND THE MOON?

Somewhat surprisingly, scientists and engineers have indeed considered putting a super-collider on the Moon. Such a machine would operate just like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at CERN, near Geneva, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. These 'atom-smashers' create two particle beams travelling in opposite directions through ultrahigh-vacuum rings. Strong superconducting electromagnets accelerate the beams to almost the speed of light. The beams are then allowed to collide in one of the detector instruments, creating a cascade of other particles which are then measured and analysed.

- FAYE HOLMES, VIA EMAIL

The more energy your collider particles have, the higher the mass of the collision 'products'. Many of the questions in modern particle physics (and there are many) require exploration of this high-mass parameter space. So, physicists are keen to build bigger and more powerful colliders. And as it turns out, the Moon is an ideal spot.