( CNN ) -- Scientists say they are a step closer to recreating the conditions at the birth of the universe and to understanding life as we know it , after the successful collision of heavy lead ions in a massive machine in Europe . This week , for the first time , ions were smashed together inside the Large Hadron Collider along the French and Swiss border . Until now , only protons had been collided in the experiment . The tiny particles ' lightning-fast collision promised to produce temperatures up to 100,000 times hotter than the sun , said Michael Tuts , a professor in experimental high-energy physics at New York 's Columbia University and one of hundreds of scientists involved in the project . `` What we 're doing is reproducing the conditions that existed at the very early universe , a few millionths of a second after the Big Bang , '' said Tuts , referencing the cosmic explosion that many scientists believe spawned the universe from one minuscule particle . ALICE , an acronym for A Large Ion Collider Experiment , is run through the European Laboratory for Nuclear Research and involves physicists , engineers and technicians from around the world . Many of these scientists will examine the aftereffects of this latest ion collision as they try to step back further to the universe 's emergence billions of years ago . The lead ion , Tuts explained , is a lead atom that does not contain electrons -- thus , is more likely reflective of what matter existed in the millionths of a second after the Big Bang . By combining more and more basic elements , scientists hope to better understand how various particles came together to create the modern-day universe and all it contains . `` We hope to understand how we 're put together , how these ( basic ) constituents go on to make protons and neutrons , which in turn go on to make the atoms that you and I are made of , '' Tuts told CNN . Microseconds after the Big Bang , there was a `` hot soup '' of particles called quarks and gluons at a temperature of around 2 trillion degrees above absolute zero , John Harris , professor of physics at Yale University , said last year . Although they have never been directly seen , these particles are theoretically the building blocks of the bigger particles -- protons , neutrons and electrons -- that form the universe as we know it .
Lead atoms have collided for the first time inside a massive machine in Europe . The machine is part of an experiment aiming to understand post - Big Bang physics . Scientists are working with basic elements to understand how atoms stick together .