A subatomic particle uncovered in 2012 may be the long-coveted Higgs boson and one day lead to the destruction of the universe, according to researchers.

Fox News reports that the mass of the respective particle, which was discovered at the world's biggest particle accelerator (Large Hadron Collider) in Geneva, is a key component in a calculation that projects the future of both time and space.

"This calculation tells you that many tens of billions of years from now there'll be a catastrophe," said Joseph Lykken, a theoretical physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.

Lykken, who is a collaborator on one of the LHC's experiments, had spoken on Feb. 18 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"It may be the universe we live in is inherently unstable, and at some point billions of years from now it's all going to get wiped out," he added.

The Higgs boson particle is a manifestation of an energy field pervading the universe called the Higgs field, which is thought to explain why scientific particles have mass, according to the site.

After searching for decades for proof of the particle and field's existence, physicists at the LHC said in July 2012 that they'd found a new particle that more than certainly may be the Higgs boson.

"This discovery to me was personally astounding. To me, Higgs was sort of, it might be there, it might not. The fact that it's there is really a tremendous accomplishment."

If the particle indeed turns out to be the Higgs, it wouldn't only reinforce the theory of how particles develop mass, but it allows scientists to make new calculations that weren't feasible prior to the particle's properties.

In order to confirm the particle's identity, more data is still needed. However scientists feel that it's a good bet to be the Higgs.

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