Scientists working with data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) this week revealed that a detailed analysis suggests that the elusive Higgs boson really has been discovered.

The possible discovery of the so-called “god particle” was announced last year, but scientists emphasized that more research would be needed before the discovery could be confirmed. Researchers have now analyzed two and a half times the data available at the time of that announcement, and it still appears likely that the Higgs Boson has been found.

“The preliminary results with the full 2012 data set are magnificent and to me it is clear that we are dealing with a Higgs boson though we still have a long way to go to know what kind of Higgs boson it is.” said Joe Incandela, a physicist working on the CMS project at CERN.

The analysis of the data focused on the observed particle’s quantum properties and interactions with other particles. The Higgs boson is hypothesized to have no spin and its parity is hypothesized to be positive. Researchers stated the data collected at CERN “strongly indicates” that the observed particle is the Higgs.

“The beautiful new results represent a huge effort by many dedicated people,” said Dave Charlton, spokesperson for the ATLUS experiment at CERN, which is using the LHC’s high power to observe particle interactions. “They point to the new particle having the spin-parity of a Higgs boson as in the Standard Model. We are now well started on the measurement programme in the Higgs sector.”

(Image via CERN)