--- 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=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 800 og:image:height: 450 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=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Physicists Prove a New Particle Exists > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## 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 CERN An 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. ## Transcript Nine years and nearly three billion miles. That's the journey the New Horizons spacecraft has taken to complete a flyby of Pluto. And liftoff of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft [ APPLAUSE ] After launching in January 2006, New Horizons was set to pass the dwarf planet Tuesday morning, but we won't know if the mission was successful until it sends a message back to Earth Tuesday evening. But NASA has already teased a high- res image that New Horizons was able to send back The fourth flight around the planet. The project will give scientists a better look at Pluto than they have ever had before. Researchers hope to learn more about its atmosphere, its geology, and its five moons. Specifically, scientists are looking at Pluto's moon Charon because of its similarities to our moon. Interestingly both those moons formed from impact events. Our own moon was formed from debris after a Mars sized planet smashed into the early Earth. Earth. Similarly, Charon was formed when a Pluto- sized body smashed into a young Pluto. 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