WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has endorsed the development of a multi-million-dollar particle accelerator project.<br /><br />According to MIT News, the electron-ion collider will consist of two intersecting accelerators — one blasting a beam of electrons and the other a beam of protons or ions to nearly the speed of light.<br /><br />The beams are made to collide at intersecting points, which are surrounded by detectors to record the resulting interaction.<br /><br />Each collision generates virtual photons, particles of light that penetrate through the proton or nucleus to tease out the structure within, including the distribution of quarks and gluons.<br /><br />The proposed machine would be able to help physicists understand where the mass of a proton comes from, how it gets its spin, and how gluons work.<br /><br />Science Magazine reports that two facilities have submitted proposals to host the EIC. Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York has a proton accelerator, but no electron ring, while the Jefferson Lab in Newport News, Virginia has the electron accelerator, but will need a proton ring.<br /><br />The Department of Energy is currently building a $730 million facility for rare isotope beams, and may not be able to fund the proposed collider until after 2020.
