Physicists smashed gold nuclei together at nearly the speed of light and found an unexpected pattern in the particles, according to Live Science.[7853556][7861620] The signal detected by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York is strong enough to suggest a long-sought critical point.[7853556][7861620] The dip in variations could be a sign of a critical point, a special set of conditions where nuclear matter changes its transformation behavior.[7853556][7861620] The team analyzed roughly 1 billion collisions, measuring how hard charged particles were flung sideways out of the fireball.[7853556][7861620] The researchers cautioned that the dip is a tantalizing hint, not proof of the long-sought transition.[7853556][7861620] If confirmed, the pattern could help reveal how the universe cooled and condensed into protons and neutrons.[7853556][7861620] The variations in particle flung sideways out of the fireball varied slightly from one collision to the next.[7853556][7861620] The team detected the pattern in the particles smashed together at nearly the speed of light.[7853556][7861620] The experiment found an unexpected pattern in the particles that could help explain how the universe formed.[7853556][7861620] Physicists expected the size of the variations to change smoothly as they adjusted the collision energy.[7853556][7861620] Instead, the variations dipped, shrinking and then growing again.[7853556][7861620]