Bubble Chambers: How We Used to See Invisible Particles

Bubble chambers were early tools for making invisible particles visible.
They were filled with superheated liquid, often hydrogen, just below boiling.
When a charged particle passed through, it left a trail of tiny bubbles.
These bubble tracks could be photographed and analyzed to study particle behavior.
Invented in 1952 by Donald Glaser, bubble chambers revolutionized particle physics.
They allowed scientists to discover many new particles in the 1950s and 1960s.
By applying magnetic fields, tracks bent, revealing a particle’s charge and momentum.
Bubble chambers were huge—some held thousands of liters of liquid.
They have since been replaced by electronic detectors, which capture data faster and in more detail.
Despite being outdated, bubble chambers remain iconic images of the golden age of particle physics