New CMS visitor centre proves a star attraction

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, which is being carried out in preparation for the installation of CERN’s forthcoming Large Hadron Collider (LHC), became one of the laboratory’s star visitor attractions during the inauguration of a new visitor centre on 14 June.

cernnews5_9-01 — The 13 x 6 m, 120 tonne inner cylinder of the vacuum tank that houses the superconducting magnet for the CMS experiment at CERN’s LHC collider reaches the Faucille Pass, at the summit of the Jura Mountains, en route to CERN. The 120 km journey from manufacturer Franc-Comptoise Industrie, a subsidiary of the German DWE concern, took five days. The cylinder is the largest single element of the CMS detector.

Until recently, CERN’s 20 000 annual visitors were taken on a guided tour of one of the experiments at the Large Electron-Positron collider (LEP), the laboratory’s flagship research facility. With the closure of LEP last year, underground visits are no longer possible, and a new series of itineraries has been put in place, including preparations for LHC experiments.