--- title: Pentaquark: Scientists Discover New Particle description: The new particle is a very different form of matter than we are familiar with. canonical: https://time.com/3957679/pentaquark-physics-new-particle/ author: Tanya Basu article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-14T19:46:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:35.026Z article:section: Science og:title: Scientists Discover the Pentaquark og:description: Physicists have proven the existence of a new particle og:url: https://time.com/3957679/pentaquark-physics-new-particle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1b85e602080e29c/69885addcd68484df00a0cb0/pentaquark.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: pentaquark og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Discover the Pentaquark twitter:description: Physicists have proven the existence of a new particle twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1b85e602080e29c/69885addcd68484df00a0cb0/pentaquark.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Physicists Prove a New Particle Exists ## Video: Are We There Yet? Spacecraft To Fly By Pluto Tuesday [Watch (HLS stream): Are We There Yet? Spacecraft To Fly By Pluto Tuesday](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0mC2hQrZ.m3u8) (1:07)  _Published 2015-07-14. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is due to arrive at Pluto on Tuesday after a 3 billion-mile journey._  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Jul 14, 2015 7:46 PM UTC  CERN CERNAn illustration of the possible layout of quarks in a pentaquark  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Jul 14, 2015 7:46 PM UTC Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN in Switzerland announced the [discovery of a new particle, the pentaquark](http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.03414). The Collider, which smashes atoms together, showed signs of the pentaquark in 2011 and 2012, but scientists wanted to make absolutely sure of its existence before announcing its discovery. “We have made very detailed checks to verify that there can be no other explanation,” Guy Wilkinson, a spokesman for CERN, [said](http://www.wsj.com/articles/hadron-collider-scientists-stumble-upon-pentaquark-particle-1436879377). The history of the pentaquark dates back to 1964, when two physicists, Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig, independently came to the conclusion that a group of subatomic particles that acted as building blocks for another form of matter existed. Referred to as “quarks,” these particles were thought to exist in varied states, much like matter can be found in solid, liquid or gas forms. One of these alternative states was the pentaquark, which was made up of four quarks and an antiquark, or a quark’s anti-matter. Scientists were hesitant to announce the recent discovery of the pentaquark, because its existence had been purely theoretical and efforts to prove its existence previously had failed. “We were very careful in putting this paper forward,” Patrick Koppenburg, a physicist at the Large Hadron Collider in Cern, [told BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33517492). “It’s just the word ‘pentaquark’ which seems to be cursed somehow because there have been many discoveries that were then superseded by new results that showed that previous ones were actually fluctuations and not real signals.” The discovery of the pentaquark may provide hints as to what happens when giant stars collapse. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3957679/pentaquark-physics-new-particle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3957679/pentaquark-physics-new-particle/"},"headline":"Physicists Prove a New Particle Exists","datePublished":"2015-07-14T19:46:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:35.026Z","description":"The discovery may provide hints as to what happens when giant stars collapse","url":"https://time.com/3957679/pentaquark-physics-new-particle/","keywords":["Physics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1b85e602080e29c/69885addcd68484df00a0cb0/pentaquark.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tanya Basu","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1b85e602080e29c/69885addcd68484df00a0cb0/pentaquark.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"pentaquark","caption":"pentaquark","creditText":"An illustration of the possible layout of quarks in a pentaquark","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/physics/","name":"Physics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3957679/pentaquark-physics-new-particle/","name":"Physicists Prove a New Particle Exists"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Are We There Yet? Spacecraft To Fly By Pluto Tuesday","description":"NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is due to arrive at Pluto on Tuesday after a 3 billion-mile journey.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0mC2hQrZ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-14T16:29:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0mC2hQrZ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3957679/pentaquark-physics-new-particle/","duration":"PT1M7S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3957679/pentaquark-physics-new-particle/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```