Collider temps lower than outer space

GENEVA, Switzerland, April 10 (UPI) -- The first section of Europe's Large Hadron Collider has reached a temperature of minus 271 degrees Celsius -- lower than that of outer space.

The entire 17-mile LHC ring must be cooled to that temperature for its magnets that focus its proton beams to remain in a superconductive state.

There are three parts to the cooling process, scientists said, interspersed by many tests. During the first phase, the sector is cooled to minus 193 degrees Celsius -- slightly above the temperature of liquid nitrogen. The second phase brings the temperature to minus 269 degrees Celsius.

The final phase cools the magnets to minus 271 degrees Celsius, allowing helium to become superfluid, with virtually no viscosity.

"It's exciting because for more than 10 years people have been designing, building and testing separately each part of this sector and now we have a chance to test it all together for the first time," said Serge Claudet, head of the LHC's Cryogenic Operation Team.

Although comprising only one-eighth of the LHC, buried beneath the French-Swiss border near Geneva, the sector is the world's largest cryogenic installation.