The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been a divisive subject of discussion from day one. However, the $10 billion dollar investment in this research tool appears to be paying off with exciting new scientific discoveries.

According to the CERN website, on Mar 30, two high-energy proton beams collided in the 17-mile-long underground tunnel after two previous failed attempts. The collider broke its own energy record with the protons reaching 3.5 trillion-electron-volts (TeV) to create a 7-TeV collision.

There were concerns as to whether the experiment could proceed at the LHC’s full potential according to National Geographic due to a 2008 electrical glitch that resulted in a large helium leek inside the machine’s tunnels. However, these concerns were refuted with the success of the test.

Currently, CERN scientists plan to create a collision with double this amount of energy in the near future.

Scientists at CERN hope that the collision will answer questions as to why Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity doesn’t apply to quantum mechanics, the study of particles infinitely too small for the human eye to see. With the data collected from the experiments, CERN scientists will attempt to understand why matter and antimatter weren’t created in equal amounts during the Big Bang, thus causing both to react and destroy the universe.

After more studies with the LHC, scientists hope to ultimately understand the events that occurred in the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang that CERN scientists theorize was the start of the universe.