The recent technical fault at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has delayed operations until after Christmas. Actually, no operations will be carried out at the world’s largest particle accelerator until April 2009 and the information was confirmed Tuesday by officials at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) which runs the LHC.

The LHC is a highly complex machine that was built to accelerate subatomic particles called protons to 99.9% the speed of light and collide them. The main goal of this experiment is to find new forms of matter and energy which scientists believe could result from smashing the particles.

The first experiment was carried out two weeks ago in the giant particle accelerator located near Switzerland’s capital, Geneva. However, physicians had to shut down the LHC due to a helium leak. The mishap was basically caused by an electrical connection between two of the superconducting electromagnets went wrong, heated and melted causing a helium leak in the underground collider tunnel. The liquid helium is used to keep the magnets at superconducting temperatures. The operating temperature of the LHC is of minus 271.3 degrees Celsius (minus 456.3 degrees Fahrenheit).

In order to be repaired, the magnets will have to be warmed up and then cooled down again. This whole process, including fixing the problem, will take at least two months, CERN engineers estimated. That doesn’t leave enough time for running the LHC before Christmas. The collider will be shut down during winter to save money, or as CERN officials called it "obligatory winter maintenance period."

The delay was described by CERN Director General Robert Aymar as a “psychological blow.”

“I have no doubt that we will overcome this setback with the same degree of rigor and application,” he said.

The LHC is in a 17 miles long underground tunnel and was built in order to re-create the conditions of the "Big Bang."