RHIC should be ready to begin its scientific mission in the Fall of 1999. Here, it's shown while under construction. RHIC will strip the nuclei from gold atoms and accelerate these nuclei through a 3.8-kilometer-long, circular underground tunnel to almost the speed of light. Trillions of gold nuclei will be racing around this track, in opposite directions.  Several times each second, two gold nuclei will collide head-on.  When they do, if our theories are correct then a hot fireball of nuclear matter will be created.  If you could use a match to heat gold nuclei to one trillion degrees, you would produce the same hot fireball. Rather than attempt to invent a match that is that hot, scientists built RHIC instead.