At 12.30 a.m. on Wednesday, the Large Hadron Collider is scheduled to be switched on by the scientists on the Franco-Swiss border. The LHC is a 17-mile underground ring intended to smash opposing beams of 7 TeV protons into each other, in an attempt to recreate the after-effects of the „Big Bang.”

Built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the highest-energy particle accelerator is contained in a circular tunnel with a circumference of 27 kilometres at a depth ranging from 50 to 175 metres underground. After initial particle beam injections were carried out without any problems in August, tomorrow scientists are hoping to successfully circulate a beam through the entire LHC.

The first high-energy collisions are scheduled for next month. The purpose of the Collider is to fill in the missing links in the Standard Model of physics, which is a theory describing three of the four known fundamental interactions among the elementary particles. The interaction that has eluded the Standard Model is gravity.

The event taking place tomorrow has given raise to many a heated debate on the impact that switching the Large Hadron Collider on will have on our planet. While some deem Wednesday as being the D-Day, others say it will be a huge step towards unlocking the mysteries of the Universe, which is in no way to cause any damage to the Earth. And some, namely a pair of Russian scientists, think that the LHC will be the first time machine and expect creatures from the future to visit our planet after it begins its mission.

Critics’ main fear is that the Collider will produce a black hole (or something similar to it) that will bring the world to an end.

CERN officials have conducted a series of safety reviews that revealed that there is no cause for concern, the formation of a black hole being highly unlikely. Moreover, even if this worst case scenario were to become reality, the hole would be absorbed due to Hawking Radiation before it could do any harm, CERN scientists added.

The data from the experiment will be used to solve the mysteries surrounding concepts such as “dark matter,” “dark energy,” and, most importantly, “Higgs Boson.” The latter, known as the “God Particle,” is the only particle that the Standard Model didn’t observe, although it has predicted it. The “Higgs boson” could explain how massless particles manage to construct mass in matter.

CERN and Fernilab have made huge efforts to observe the particle experimentally, but to no avail so far. The hope now lies with the LHC. Nevertheless, it will take baby-steps towards the re-enactment of the “Big Bang.” First, technicians will pump a beam in one direction only. If this goes smoothly, the beam will be pushed in the other direction and afterwards, beams will be projected both ways, thus smashing protons into each other. Tiny collisions recreating the “Big Bang” will be produced later this year.

Let the countdown begin.