The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was shut down by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and will remain that way for at least the next two months. The cause of this measure was a helium leak that occurred after an accident on Friday.

The gigantic particle accelerator built 330 feet underground along the French-Swiss border was damaged far worse than researchers had estimated, but it posed no threat to the personnel working there.

Officials of the project said it all started with a flawed electrical connection between two magnets. The connection melted, caused a mechanical blunder and then caused the helium leak. CERN researchers must warm the damaged section so they can fix the problem and this will take a while. The operating temperature of the LHC is of minus 271.3 degrees Celsius (minus 456.3 degrees Fahrenheit).

"Because the LHC is a superconducting machine that works at very low temperatures, in order to get in and fix it we've got to warm it up, then we go and fix it, and then we cool it down again,” said CERN spokesman James Gillies.

Other repairs are needed at the LHC, but with no real danger to those working on them.

CERN officials said a full investigation is currently under way.

The LHC is 17 miles long and was built in order to accelerate two beams of subatomic particles from opposing different directions. The two hadrons collide at more than 99.9% percent the speed of light creating new particles which are the final result of the experiment. Researchers hope to discover new types of particles by colliding the hadrons. Basically, the LHC, which is the biggest and most complex piece of machinery ever made, was built in order to re-create the conditions of the "Big Bang."