RHIC collision gif (IMAGE) DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory Caption Collisions of heavy ions (the nuclei of atoms) at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) recreate matter as it existed just after the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago. The collisions "set free" the quarks and gluons that make up the protons and neutrons of the nuclei. The result is a hot soup of these fundamental particles, a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Credit Brookhaven National Laboratory Usage Restrictions OK for use with stories about RHIC License Original content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.