The most powerful magnetic field that has ever been measured anywhere in the universe has not been able to produce any magnetic monopoles that can be detected.
Although numerous calculations of possible phenomena that go beyond the standard model of particle physics predict the existence of these hypothetical particles, more than a century's worth of searching has not produced any evidence that these particles actually exist.
Every type of magnet that we are aware of has at least two poles, which are typically referred to as a north pole and a south pole, and these poles have opposing magnetic charges.
On the other hand, there are models of the universe that postulate the existence of magnetic monopoles, which are particles that have only a north or a south pole.
For instance, the presence of magnetic monopoles would explain why electric charge is quantized, meaning it comes in packets with a minimum size.
Researchers have spent the better part of the last century or so looking for magnetic monopoles, but they have not been discovered yet either in space or in the collisions of particles that take place in particle colliders.
However, while researchers at CERN were looking for these monopoles, their experiments produced an entirely unexpected result, which shocked scientists all over the world. So, stick around till the end to find out everything there is to know about what one of the experiments at CERN led to!