Have you ever imagined that you are living in a state of weightlessness of the universe? As its mystery still remains hidden to people, they have fantasies about it. The Postech Times covers the universe in multiple ways to unravel the mysteries of the universe. The first article introduces the concept of the God particle, named higgs particle. The second shows the aerospace engineering of space powers. The last one is the future assignment of Korea to leap into space powers.
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Have you ever wondered how this universe was first created and formed into the current state where we spend our lives? When it comes to the creation of the universe, a majorit of people first think of the Big Bang, which is the most prevailing scientific model that describes how the universe was formed. According to the theory, about 13.798 billion years ago, the early universe, which was a dense, hot state with a large amount of energy concentrated into a single tiny point, exploded and started its expanding process. This expansion has been claimed to be true through years of observation, and the theory is now widely accepted as a quite reliable story of the universe.
However, one question remained unanswered to the scholars such as astronomers, physicists, and astrophysicists. What brings mass to the particles? Considering the symmetry of nature, all the masses of particles should sum up to zero, which means that the formation of various components of the universe with their own masses would be fundamentally impossible. According to the Standard Model, used by scientists to explain particles composing the universe, everything in this world is composed of 12 elementary particles (6 quarks and 6 leptons) and 4 gauge bosons (W, Z, Photon, and Gluons). This model has an underlying assumption of the gauge symmetry. Under the theory of gauge symmetry, for example, the weak force’s symmetry should make the masses of all the bosons to be zero. However, those gauge bosons (W and Z bosons) are actually very massive in real situation. Therefore, in 1964, Peter Higgs suggested an ideal boson called ‘Higgs Boson’ that brings masses to those particles composing all things in the universe, and groups of researchers named this process the ‘Higgs mechanism’. The Higgs mechanism breaks the natural law of symmetry of particles so that the particles can be massive in spite of the law of symmetry.
From this point, Higgs Boson can be related to the formation of the universe. This particle, as the only scalar particle with no spin, explains why those fundamental particles have mass although they have to be ?assless?due to the symmetry. Therefore, with the Higgs Particle, the Standard Model is more complete, as well as the Big Bang theory because it explains how the masses were formed right after the explosion. The formation of planets, stars, galaxies, and all materials isfeasible only provided the existence of Higgs particle. Thus, a myriad of scientists all over the world celebrated when this so-called ‘God Particle’ was discovered on 14 Mar. 2013 by the CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research).
Even though human discovered this ‘God Particle’, it would be still not enough to fully explain how the universe has been actually formed. However, after years of researches and observation, the principles of the universe are being disclosed more and more, and there would be one day when humankind finally grasp the secret of the universe.
