CELESTA (CERN Latch-up Experiment Student Satellite) will be the first CERN-driven microsatellite, developed in collaboration with the University of Montpellier in the framework of a collaboration agreement defined and signed in 2015. The project, supported through the KT Fund, has two main objectives: one is developing and flying a space version of CERN radiation monitor (RadMon) coupled with a latch-up experiment; the second is showing that the space radiation environment of Low Earth Orbit can be reproduced in the CERN High energy AcceleRator Mixed field facility (CHARM). This would open the use for space system qualification activities, and provide a radiation monitor module for future missions.

The discovery of the Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS experiments was announced in CERN’s main auditorium in July 2012. Here, finally, was the missing piece in the standard model describing our universe. For some, it was the culmination of over 40 years’ work. This champagne bottle was drunk by members of CERN’s Theoretical physics group on the occasion.

This brass block was part of the CMS experiment. Its role was to slow down particles before their energy was measured. The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment is one of two large general-purpose particle physics detectors built on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The crystals used in CMS’s electromagnetic calorimeter may look like simple bricks of glass, but they are in fact mostly metal and are heavier than steel! Lead tungstate crystal with a touch of oxygen in this crystalline form is highly transparent and scintillates when electrons and photons pass through it. This means it produces light in proportion to the particle’s energy. CMS contains nearly 80’000 such crystals, each of which took two days to grow. This technology developed at CERN has applications in medical imaging, for example improving cancer diagnosis. The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is a general-purpose detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

A beautiful module of tracker from the CMS experiment, made up of silicon.

The crystals used in CMS’s electromagnetic calorimeter may look like simple bricks of glass, but they are in fact mostly metal and are heavier than steel! Lead tungstate crystal with a touch of oxygen in this crystalline form is highly transparent and scintillates when electrons and photons pass through it. This means it produces light in proportion to the particle’s energy. CMS contains nearly 80’000 such crystals, each of which took two days to grow. This technology developed at CERN has applications in medical imaging, for example improving cancer diagnosis. The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is a general-purpose detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).