The European Organization for Nuclear Research (French: Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire), known as CERN ( /ˈsɜrn/; French pronunciation: [sɛʁn]; see History), is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border (
46°14′3″N 6°3′19″E). Established in 1954, the organization has twenty European member states.
LNGS
Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) is a particle physics laboratory of the INFN, situated near the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, between the towns of L’Aquila and Teramo, about 120 km from Rome.
OPERA
The Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus (OPERA) is a scientific instrument for detecting tau neutrinos from muon neutrino oscillations. The experiment is a collaboration between CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Gran Sasso, Italy. It exploits CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (CNGS). On 31 May 2010, OPERA researchers observed the first tau neutrino candidate event in a muon neutrino beam.[1] In September 2011, OPERA researchers observed muon neutrinos traveling apparently at faster than lightspeed (see: OPERA neutrino anomaly).
