The proton’s strange new cousin

Its existence further validates the standard model of particle physics

A new heavy cousin of the proton was found hiding in a pile of data at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.

While a mighty new particle accelerator is starting up in Europe, Fermilab’s Tevatron, outside Chicago, still has a few cards up its sleeve. Physicists working at the DZero detector (hosted in the facility on the top right, along the accelerator’s 6.3-kilometer ring in the background) announced the discovery of a new particle called the omega-b-minus.
BIG FOR SMALL While a mighty new particle accelerator is starting up in Europe, Fermilab’s Tevatron, outside Chicago, still has a few cards up its sleeve.