Sandia’s Z machine has produced plasmas that exceed temperatures of 2 billion degrees Kelvin — hotter than the interiors of stars. The unexpectedly hot output, if its cause were understood and harnessed, could eventually mean that smaller, less costly nuclear fusion plants would produce the same amount of energy as larger plants.
The phenomena also may explain how astrophysical entities like solar flares maintain their extreme temperatures.
“At first, we were disbelieving,” says Sandia project lead Chris Deeney. “We repeated the experiment many times to make sure we had a true result and not an ‘Ooops’!”
The results, recorded by spectrometers and confirmed by computer models created by John Apruzese and colleagues at Naval Research Laboratory, have held up over 14 months of additional tests.
Believe me. Everyone in New Mexico is happy when no one at Sandia says, “Oops!”
This is wicked cool!
That’s what I call high tech. It’s awesome.
“Kelvins” are not “degrees”… they are simply “Kelvin”
So it is correct to say: “Temperatures as hot as 2 billion Kelvin”
Spiderman
Spiderman
Radioactive Spiderman…
I sure hope this doesn’t turn out to be another cold fusion fiasco.
On the other hand, someone will make sure, at least in this country, that it will cost consumers way more than it needs to just to fleece us and make tons of money for the oligarchs running the thing. That is, if it ever is made feasible as an energy source.
Umm … cold fusion fiasco? – wasn’t this article talking about hotter than ever recorded temperatures? … In the billions of Kelvin (and shame on the authors of the article Dvorak is quoting for calling it degrees Kelvin – any high school physics or chem student can tell you its just Kelvins)