When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN accelerates two beams of protons to unprecedented energies, they collide head–on in the middle of the giant ATLAS detector and spectacular "events" are detected which consist of tens or hundreds of product particles. The 7,000 ton detector is comprised of different layers of detector elements (shown in different colours). The main purpose of each layer is to identify the kind of produced particles and their position. Some of the detectors (the so-called calorimeters) measure the energy of the particles as well.
The main purpose of the ATLAS experiment is to provide answers to unsolved fundament problems such as "what is the origin of mass?" etc. It searches for new phenomena, and new particles such as the supersymmetric ones which could explain the nature of dark matter. Already in July 2012 ATLAS and CMS -another LHC experiment- reported evidence of the existence of a new particle called the Higgs boson. This particle is predicated by the Higgs mechanism which permits the fundamental particles to acquire mass.
Inside the ATLAS detector, the collisions take place, and tracks emerge from the central point of the detector (zoom). Our curent knowledge of Particle Physics is described in detail by the Standard Model.
