Discover CERN

Accelerate: explore CERN’s particle accelerators

Scientists from all over the world join forces at CERN to answer profound questions about the Universe. Let them guide you through the laboratory! 

An immersive scenography will transport you to the underground tunnels where the smallest building blocks of matter accelerate and collide. Discover machines of a remarkable scale and complexity.

Tours for groups

Are you a group of high school or university students, scientists, experts or simply curious about CERN? Take the opportunity to visit the heart of CERN’s research and engineering facilities on a tailor-made guided tour. Let us know your areas of interest and we will do our best to create a customised tour of CERN for you! 

Guided tours for groups of more than 12 people need to be booked up to nine months in advance. Please note that slots fill up within a few days. Find out how to book here.

LEGO Robotics challenge (8-15 years)

Build your own LEGO robot, program your robot, and perform a series of measurements inside a closed off “danger zone” that is inaccessible to humans.

Robots are used in many different environments at CERN that are difficult to access or where there could be potential for danger for humans.  CERN scientists have unique experience with designing, building and operating robots for different purposes.  

Magnet challenge (8-12 years)

Find out how magnets work, how they interact with other materials, and how we use magnets in experiments at CERN.

CERN uses thousands of magnets for particle physics experiments. For example, strong electromagnets are used to bend the paths of protons in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We can also find strong permanent magnets in particle physics research, for example, inside the AMS particle detector, which is attached to the International Space Station. 

Seeing the invisible (5+ years)

How can we make the invisible visible? Explore how balls interact with a hidden structure to come up with your best model of what the invisible structure is and learn more about the Nature of Science!

A lot of phenomena scientists at CERN investigate are invisible to our eyes! For example, particles cannot be seen with the naked eye, and properties such as their mass, energy and charge can only be determined indirectly. How do scientists design clever experiments to understand things that aren’t visible?

Slimy detectors (5-7 years)

Mix your own slime and conduct experiments to find out how slimy detectors can help us to make invisible things visible.

A lot of phenomena scientists at CERN investigate are invisible! For example, elementary particles cannot be seen with the naked eye, and properties such as their mass, energy and electric charge can only be determined with the help of powerful research tools like particle detectors. In particle detectors, special materials make invisible properties of particles visible.