Vrecknidj
Warlord
10283 Posts
    
United States
 | | 03/09/2006 8:17 AM |
| http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060308/sc_space/recordsetforhottesttemperatureonearth36billiondegreesinlab
Record Set for Hottest Temperature on Earth: 3.6 Billion Degrees in Lab Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Wed Mar 8, 5:00 PM ET
Scientists have produced superheated gas exceeding temperatures of 2 billion degrees Kelvin, or 3.6 billion degrees Fahrenheit.
This is hotter than the interior of our Sun, which is about 15 million degrees Kelvin, and also hotter than any previous temperature ever achieved on Earth, they say.
They don't know how they did it.
The feat was accomplished in the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories.
"At first, we were disbelieving," said project leader Chris Deeney. "We repeated the experiment many times to make sure we had a true result."
Thermonuclear explosions are estimated to reach only tens to hundreds of millions of degrees Kelvin; other nuclear fusion experiments have achieved temperatures of about 500 million degrees Kelvin, said a spokesperson at the lab.
The achievement was detailed in the Feb. 24 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.
The Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world. It’s designed to test materials under extreme temperatures and pressures. It works by releasing 20 million amps of electricity into a vertical array of very fine tungsten wires. The wires dissolve into a cloud of charged particles, a superheated gas called plasma.
A very strong magnetic field compresses the plasma into the thickness of a pencil lead. This causes the plasma to release energy in the form of X-rays, but the X-rays are usually only several million degrees.
Sandia researchers still aren’t sure how the machine achieved the new record. Part of it is probably due to the replacement of the tungsten steel wires with slightly thicker steel wires, which allow the plasma ions to travel faster and thus achieve higher temperatures.
One thing that puzzles scientists is that the high temperature was achieved after the plasma’s ions should have been losing energy and cooling. Also, when the high temperature was achieved, the Z machine was releasing more energy than was originally put in, something that usually occurs only in nuclear reactions.
Sandia consultant Malcolm Haines theorizes that some unknown energy source is involved, which is providing the machine with an extra jolt of energy just as the plasma ions are beginning to slow down.
Sandia National Laboratories is located by Albuquerque New Mexico and is part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Bubbles Get Hotter than the Sun Z Machine: Zero to 76,000 mph in a Second Simple Experiment Creates Surprising State of Matter Laser Could Rival Sun's Energy | |
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Sulaco
Underboss
1605 Posts
| | 03/09/2006 10:20 AM |
| Does anyone else think this sounds like something that would be in the prologue of a Michael Crichton that leads somewhere in chapter 7 to a massive accident that endangers the future of every living organism on the planet.
I also love the fact that these eggheads keep saying "we don't know how we did it...we don't know what happened..." but it never occured to them that maybe their readings were wrong. | |
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griffrat
Commander
3506 Posts
| | 03/09/2006 11:11 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Sulaco
... but it never occured to them that maybe their readings were wrong.
Actually, it did. At least that is the way that I read the article. Since the repeated the trial "several" times. To me, a fellow egghead, I read this is as Cheif Egghead talking to Egghead grunt 1, "what the hell? there is no way that is right. Do it again." Then after the test is ran with the same results or very close. Cheif Egghead turns to Egghead grunt 2 and says do this again since egghead 1 is a screw up. When Egghead 2 comes back with the same results as Egghead 1 then Chief takes the resluts and says, "WOW, look at I did,now, as we are exploring the phenomon of excitable molecules as released from the yada yada."
Trust me when an Egghead screws up it is re-done by several eggheads in order of Eggheadedness....[:D] | |
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Vrecknidj
Warlord
10283 Posts
United States
| | 03/09/2006 11:13 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Sulaco
Does anyone else think this sounds like something that would be in the prologue of a Michale Crichton that leads somewhere in chapter 7 to a massive accident that endangers the future of every living organism on the planet.
Yep. I always like these "Holy crap, this looks like it could get really bad!" news items.
Dave | |
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glumag
Warlord
5968 Posts
| | 03/09/2006 12:31 PM |
| bah! you should see me on chili night!
Ok, seriously. Bunch of friggin idiots! Nuclear Fusion!! If that happens on that machine there will be no way of containing it, at best it would vaporize several miles around the laboratory, including the air. sheesh! | |
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zenthrus
Commander
4811 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 03/09/2006 1:17 PM |
| They were just looking for a better way to flash-fry a turkey for Thanksgiving [:P]
Your tax dollars hard at work finding news ways to vaporize everything. Yay! [XX(] | |
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Sulaco
Underboss
1605 Posts
| | 03/09/2006 2:07 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by zenthrus
Your tax dollars hard at work finding news ways to vaporize everything. Yay! [XX(]
Coming soon to your friendly neighbourhood Middle East hot-spot. | |
Champion of the Gelatinous Cube. Nemesis of Gnomes and Dinosaurs.
Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. ~ Terry Pratchett | |
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Toxic_Rat
Sergeant
745 Posts
Lehi, Utah, USA
| | 03/09/2006 2:15 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by glumag
bah! you should see me on chili night!
Ok, seriously. Bunch of friggin idiots! Nuclear Fusion!! If that happens on that machine there will be no way of containing it, at best it would vaporize several miles around the laboratory, including the air. sheesh!
But it would be cool to watch it go up.ΖD]
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Any time you try to make something idiot-proof, someone always goes out and invents a better idiot.
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griffrat
Commander
3506 Posts
| | 03/09/2006 7:51 PM |
| | sunsreen lots and lots of sun screen....ΖD] | |
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lurch_E_bean
Underboss
1058 Posts
| | 03/11/2006 10:50 PM |
| | Scientists really need to stop trying to destroy the world, in my opinion. Every few months I hear something crazy like this (usually on Slashdot or somewhere like that) and I just shake my head. I believe scientists made a miniature black hole in a lab about a year ago. Then I think I heard that Chinese scientists made a miniature sun in a lab. Now we see that science has just produced a temperature far hotter than the sun itself in a lab. This is like the start of an old James Bond movie. Please stop trying to kill us with science. | |
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Oni
Underboss
1131 Posts
| | 03/11/2006 11:11 PM |
| | I am with Mr.Bean on this one. What use could they have with a heat that hot? It makes no since why build something we don't really understand. At least cloning has its uses work on killin us that way [)]. | |
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Mortusbard
Sergeant
427 Posts
North Carolina
| | 03/11/2006 11:16 PM |
| Well we do stuff like that to see if we can.
Science feels that it must keep moving forward or face a stagnation point. All the scientist out there are also trying to be THE ONE who did...........
human nature | |
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glumag
Warlord
5968 Posts
| | 03/12/2006 9:07 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Toxic_Rat
quote:
Originally posted by glumag
bah! you should see me on chili night!
Ok, seriously. Bunch of friggin idiots! Nuclear Fusion!! If that happens on that machine there will be no way of containing it, at best it would vaporize several miles around the laboratory, including the air. sheesh!
But it would be cool to watch it go up.ΖD]
Indeed, unless it is very near you.
One of these days they are going to f#!@ with something that is going to vaporize the entire atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, I think humans are defective products, kinda like a viral infection on Earth but I really would hate to die because of someone else's scientific curiosity of how much can they do. Let Earth battle the infection by herself, no need to help her. [)] | |
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griffrat
Commander
3506 Posts
| | 03/12/2006 10:15 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by lurch_E_bean
.... Please stop trying to kill us with science.
Not all scientists are trying to melt the planet or vaporize that atmosphere. Other than that I gotta eat and have cash to buy toys right????
Better living through science is a lifestyle for someof us...[:D]
Besides what is a black hole and a small sun between people... | |
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Can of the Cave Beer
Commander
2838 Posts
| | 03/13/2006 1:08 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by griffrat
Besides what is a black hole and a small sun between people...
Your own personal galaxy? On a smaller scale of course...
Still the possibilities for energy production are staggering. I don't quite understand all that scientific-moon-speak, but if we can control the reaction and store the energy...
Cheap energy for the world is nothing to sneeze at. Of course, neither is our atmosphere being sucked up in some funky chain reaction. | |
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griffrat
Commander
3506 Posts
| | 03/13/2006 6:49 AM |
| I agree on all points.
The science fields that I deal in are the disease and posion fields. Well, the understanding of these at least.
I think that energy and food are going to be the hot topic buttons in a few years, like 5-10. If you count water, and water rights as a "food" then it will be much sooner. Especially here in the states. In the western states like Nevada, Arizona and other states. These states have depended on the Colorado River for water supply. Colordao is going through a drought, as is much of the "front range" and I look for Colorado to exercise some old 1800 water treaties to take water from the Colorado River.
Taking water from the Colorado River in Colorado means less water for the down stream places like Las Vegas and Phoenix. There are tons of people that are moving to these places and people need water. Just my two cents....[:D] | |
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Cthulhufnord
Warlord
10787 Posts
Umass Amherst Baby!
| | 03/14/2006 7:23 AM |
| My sociology professor from a few years back was saying much the same. Although he was describing it on a Global, rather than local scale.
quote:
Originally posted by griffrat
I agree on all points.
The science fields that I deal in are the disease and posion fields. Well, the understanding of these at least.
I think that energy and food are going to be the hot topic buttons in a few years, like 5-10. If you count water, and water rights as a "food" then it will be much sooner. Especially here in the states. In the western states like Nevada, Arizona and other states. These states have depended on the Colorado River for water supply. Colordao is going through a drought, as is much of the "front range" and I look for Colorado to exercise some old 1800 water treaties to take water from the Colorado River.
Taking water from the Colorado River in Colorado means less water for the down stream places like Las Vegas and Phoenix. There are tons of people that are moving to these places and people need water. Just my two cents....[:D]
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griffrat
Commander
3506 Posts
| | 03/14/2006 7:29 AM |
| | I think on a global sacle it is going to be insane. I am not trying to talk all gloom and doom. But when you look at the North Korean sabre rattling and then take a look at the infrastructre, or lack thereof. You can see that food and water along with basic human needs is going to be a driving force.... | |
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