World's biggest particle accelerator to start up again after 2-year shutdown and upgrade

FILE - In this March 30, 2010 file picture the globe of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, is illuminated outside Geneva, Switzerland. The world's biggest particle accelerator is about to start up again after a two-year shutdown and upgrade. Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, were preparing to shoot the first particle beams on Sunday April 5, 2015 through the Large Hadron Collider's 27-kilometer (16.8-mile) tunnel, beneath the Swiss-French border near Geneva. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus,file) (The Associated Press)

FILE In this Aug. 7, 2010 file picture a photographer takes a picture in the assembly room of the elements of the LHC (large hadron collider) at the European Particle Physics laboratory CERN in Geneva, Switzerland The world's biggest particle accelerator is about to start up again after a two-year shutdown and upgrade. Scientists at CERN, were preparing to shoot the first particle beams on Sunday April 5, 2015 through the Large Hadron Collider's 27-kilometer (16.8-mile) tunnel, beneath the Swiss-French border near Geneva. (AP Photo/Keystone/Salvatore Di Nolfi,file) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this May 20, 2011 file photo, a wall painting by artist Josef Kristofoletti is seen at the Atlas experiment site at the European Center for Nuclear Research, CERN, outside Geneva, Switzerland. The world's biggest particle accelerator is about to start up again after a two-year shutdown and upgrade. Scientists at CERN, were preparing to shoot the first particle beams on Sunday April 5, 2015 through the Large Hadron Collider's 27-kilometer (16.8-mile) tunnel, beneath the Swiss-French border near Geneva. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus,file) (The Associated Press)

The world's biggest particle accelerator is about to start up again after a two-year shutdown and upgrade.

Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, were preparing to shoot the first particle beams on Sunday through the Large Hadron Collider's 27-kilometer (16.8-mile) tunnel, beneath the Swiss-French border near Geneva.

The collider was instrumental in the discovery of the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that had long been theorized but never confirmed until 2013.

Scientists are promising nearly twice the energy and more violent particle crashes this time around. They hope the more powerful beam crashes — expected to start as early as June — will give them a peek into the unseen dark universe.