COULD THE GOD PARTICLE CAUSE SPACE AND TIME TO COLLAPSE, AS SUPPOSEDLY QUOTED BY STEPHEN HAWKING?

Reported by Kulvinder Singh Chadha

The universe could collapse into oblivion at any moment, the culprit being related to a recently discovered particle. The Higgs particle, known as the Higgs boson, was discovered in 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS detectors - A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS and the Compact Muon Solenoid respectively - of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC is a huge particle accelerator, 27 kilometres (16.7 miles) in circumference, located underground at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Big Bang 0.00 seconds

Widely considered to be the beginning of our universe. This point contains all of time and space, all of the universe’s fundamental forces and is made of pure energy.

Inflation 10-38 seconds

A brief and rapid period of expansion of the universe begins, thought to be a consequence of the strong nuclear force becoming distinct.

Quarks and hadrons 10-10 seconds

The expanding universe cools enough for fundamental matter particles to form. These will combine into protons and neutrons as the universe nears its first second of existence.

The existence of the Higgs particle was first predicted by a group of scientists including Peter Higgs, who won a Nobel Prize for the discovery alongside François Englert in 2013. They used the Standard Model to make their prediction, which scientists have been using as a guide to the discovery of new particles since the 1960s. The Higgs was included in those early days, but very few thought that it could ever be found.

The Higgs field gives matter particles - and also the Higgs boson - mass. However, scientists were somewhat torn on the discovery of the Higgs boson. Many were astounded and elated by it, while others were somewhat disappointed that the Standard Model didn’t turn up something more unexpected and interesting. However, it turns out that the Higgs may be exciting enough.