Tevatron facts for kids

The Tevatron was a huge machine in Illinois that scientists used to make tiny particles called protons go incredibly fast. These protons moved almost at the speed of light! Scientists watched what happened when protons crashed into antiprotons. They did this to test their ideas about what protons are made of.

The Tevatron was a circular particle accelerator at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, often called Fermilab. It was located just east of Batavia, Illinois. For a long time, it was the second most powerful particle collider in the world. Only the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was more powerful.

The Tevatron was a special type of accelerator called a synchrotron. It pushed protons and antiprotons around a ring that was about 6.28 kilometers (3.90 miles) long. It could make them reach energies of up to 1 TeV, which is where its name comes from.

Building the Tevatron

The Tevatron was finished in 1983. It cost about $120 million back then, which was a lot of money! It was regularly updated over the years to make it even better. A big upgrade called the Main Injector was added between 1994 and 1999. This upgrade cost $290 million. The Tevatron was finally turned off on September 30, 2011.

The Hunt for the Higgs Boson

Scientists at the Tevatron also tried to find a very important particle called the Higgs boson. Another huge machine, the LHC, was built later in Switzerland to help find this particle.

The LHC is much better at finding things like the Higgs boson. However, the Tevatron scientists had a head start. They wanted to find the Higgs boson before the LHC was fixed, because the LHC had some problems and needed repairs. Finding the Higgs boson would have been a huge honor for the Tevatron team.

Tevatron's Discoveries

Even though the Tevatron was shut down, it made some amazing discoveries. It helped find three of the 17 basic building blocks of matter, known as fundamental particles. One of its most famous discoveries was the top quark.

The main ring of the Tevatron might be used again in future experiments. Some of its parts could also be moved to other particle accelerators around the world.

See also

In Spanish: Tevatrón para niños