Europe's first medical heavy-ion machine

Backreaction: The Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT)—the first medical heavy-ion machine in Europe—has opened.

Close to the GSI facility near Darmstadt, the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center is a dedicated heavy-ion accelerator for deployment in radiotherapy to treat tumors.

Treatment center at the focus of the HIT Gantry. Credit: HIT

Physicist Stefan Scherer briefly takes a look at this new facility and the physics behind it.