At a lab in Batavia, Illinois, 200 physicists from seven countries have possibly made the biggest scientific discovery in decades.
It involves a subatomic particle called a Muon. It's kind of like an electron, but 200 times heavier.
Until now, the standard model, or blueprint for the 17 fundamental particles of the universe, has focused on four forces: electromagnetism, gravity, strong interaction, and weak interaction.
But after Fermilab scientists accelerated a Muon through a huge magnetic field at the speed of light it started wobbling like a top, in a way that conflicted with the standard model.
"There might be some new particles that are like, that we don't account for that are popping in and out of existence that are nudging it a little differently than was calculated," said Rosi Reed, associate professor of physics at Lehigh University.
Reed says it could be an indication of a fifth force, or lead to explanations of cosmic mysteries.
"The standard model says nothing about gravity, another is the standard model can't fully explain why we exist, like why is there more matter than antimatter," Reed said.
There hasn't has a discovery like this since 2012, when the Higgs Boson was confirmed. That's the particle that gives other particles mass.
Fermilab scientists still have a lot of data to analyze and will conduct more experiments to find out if this is something new or the result of unknown information about existing forces.
Reed says either way, it will spark scientific study for generations to come.
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