The king of the Atom smashers will soon leave the building.
The Bevatron wasn't some kind of giant metallic robot death beaver, but rather a particle accelerator opened in 1954 and used for all kinds of experiments that have aided scientists garner a higher understanding of how the universe works.
They discovered the Antiproton in the Bevatron during 1955, and the main function of it was to accelerate protons into a fixed target to then observe the bits leftover from the huge impact (not literally; the impacts themselves were physically minute).
It fired the protons around at an energy of about 6.2GeV (GigaElectronVolt), uses huge 10,000 ton magnets and 225 miles of wire.
With a huge pricetag of US$9 million when first built, it's finally reached a time where it's not useful for studying particles any more - and is being dismantled over the course of the next few years.
We're sad to see the Bevatron be pulled from the world, but look forwards to the Large Hadron Collider for all discoveries in the future - until that too becomes outdated.
Head to Wired Science for some pictures of the Bevatron.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012