It may be the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, but it’s no match for a weasel.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in the countryside just outside of Geneva, Switzerland, was taken offline Thursday evening after a weasel chewed through some wiring.
A slide presentation that was posted online by CERN said the culprit was a “fouine,” which is a beech marten. Martens are part of the weasel family.
The accelerator, which is an underground 27-kilometre ring, will be offline for the next few days until they can conduct repairs.
The elusive Higgs Boson particle — which explains what gives all matter in our universe mass — was created and observed at the LHC in 2012.
According to authorities, there was very little left of the weasel.
—with files from The Associated Press
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