Scientists Recreate a Tiny Big Bang at CERN
Researchers at CERN have successfully recreated a 'Little Big Bang' by colliding small oxygen and neon nuclei to produce quark-gluon plasma. This experiment challenges previous assumptions that only heavy nuclei could generate this primordial state of matter.
Why it matters
This discovery expands our understanding of the early universe and the fundamental properties of matter shortly after the Big Bang.
Updated: August 21, 2026 3 min read Follow us on Share this Article Event display of collisions between Neon-20 and Oxygen-16 at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Credit: University of Copenhagen For decades, physicists have been interested in finding out what the Universe was like in its first millionth of a second; in those very early moments after the Big Bang, matter existed in a strange, primordial state called quark-gluon plasma , a kind of lively mixture of fundamental particles before it combined to form protons and neutrons and then eventually atoms.
Now, researchers at CERN’s ALICE experiment, working with scientists from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, have taken a major step toward understanding this exotic phase of matter.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in