Before being put into operation, it was nicknamed the "Big Bang Machine" because of fears it could touch off a cataclysmic event that would doom Earth.
Later, the Hadron Super Collider, operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), evoked fears it would cause a black hole or strangelets, a hypothetical super-atom that, according to theory, "could expand in massive reactions to completely destroy the planet."
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Scientists brushed off such worries, but now there are several images that could even make scoffers think again.
They come from the Freedom Fighter Times blog, which explains they appeared to several photographers late in June just as a new experiment called Awake was getting under way at the super collider.
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They are ominous, resembling the warped reality that has come to be expected in Hollywood fantasies.
The first, seen above, depicts a swirl of black clouds and lightning that appears to exist apart from any other meteorological influence.
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The second, seen here, reveals almost vapor-like emanations surging upward to a glowing cloud that is in front of a roiling cloud of lightning and black.
The Times report asks: "What portal did CERN open now?" and notes the images were captured by a team of photographers including Joelle Rodrique, on June 24, and Dean Gill, nearly at the same time. Photographer Christophe Wuarez also was on hand for the images.
"The cloud looks to be rotating in a circular motion and some have claimed to see a face in the lightning filled cloud. Last year we reported that there were clear images of demons in the pictures of CERN's beams. Could this be an outer manifestation of one?" the report said.
See the Times report:
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And see a report from The Sun of London, which reported what appeared to be "portals" being opened in the cloud.
The newspaper reported the images were apparently taken on June 24, the day CERN scientists began the new Awake experiment to change the way it smashes particles together.
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The collider was restarted only last year after being idle for more than two years.
CERN, founded in 1954, features a circular tunnel some 17 miles around that houses a particle accelerator, which uses peak energy of 14 trillion electron volts to speed particles to nearly the speed of light and allow them to collide. It is underneath Switzerland near its border with France.
In 2011, WND reported a neutrino beam traveled 0.0025 percent faster through earth than the speed of light in a vacuum.
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That would totter several undisputed pillars of classical physics.
There also was a claim by scientists there that they found signs of "The God particle." That's a subatomic particle called the Higgs boson, which scientists say is critical in understanding space, time and matter. The particle previously had existed only in theory.
But as the Hadron project was beginning, scientists there received tearful pleadings and even threats to not open the experiment stations.
"They phone me and say, 'I am seriously worried. Please tell me that my children are safe," said James Gillies, public relations chief for the consortium, earlier.
"There are a number who say, 'You are evil and dangerous and you are going to destroy the world."
The neutrino report and the God particle issue then followed.
Last year, a Bible prophecy expert explained the CERN scientists "have been indoctrinated in humanism, scientific materialism and they don't believe in a supernatural world."
At the Inquisitr, skeptics said it was "conspiracy theorists" who were raising the alarms now.
"According to conspiracy theorists, bizarre clouds that formed on Friday, June 24 … over the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) facility prove that experiments being conducted by CERN scientists in Geneva are opening up mysterious inter-dimensional portals that disrupt the fabric of space and time and expose Earth to the risk of alien or demon invasion from a parallel universe," the report said.
The Freedom Fighter site explained that the CERN experiments use massive amounts of energy.
"This insane ball of energy was directly over the LHC," the site said. "Some people reported see[ing] faces in it. It is amazing they keep messing with nature and denying it."
The Freedom Fighter report continued: "What is in the cloud – some say it is lightning or a massive ball of energy. The amount of energy pulling from nature into the collider itself, you can actually see it.
"What portals and doors are being opened in this cloud?"