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Science & Technology
Think the sun's interior is too hot?: Try 3 billion degrees
2006-03-10
Record Set for Hottest Temperature on Earth: 3.6 Billion Degrees F in Lab that's only 2 billion KelvinScientists 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." let the speculation begin
Posted by:mhw

#19  D *** it, decadent capitalist Amerikan-skis stole from the we-invented-everything North Koreans and Russians again - first Chechyna, now the Sun. * BUGS BUNNY - "Of course you know this means war", in IRAN!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2006-03-10 23:26  

#18  Paging Dr. Tesla!
Paging Dr. Tesla!
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2006-03-10 21:12  

#17  Heat is a form of energy, and energy is neither created or destroyed, right

Well now it depends Mr. Dar. It is possible to have an ideal energy - here look out my window. See that tank farm? That's energy. Now to be truthful it exists only in an ideal state, that being Texas, so it's hard for it to be useful. To be useful it must be moved (FOB) NY. That requires either more energy or $.
Posted by: Billie Sol   2006-03-10 19:37  

#16  Okay, I do appreciate the help from the scientists here, but I am still confused.

Heat is a form of energy, and energy is neither created or destroyed, right? How is the energy dissipated by a magnetic field, i.e. what form does the energy take and where does it go?

Also, where does the energy to create something 3.6 billion° F come from? I imagine there was not an abundance of matter heated this high--but still it seems that it would take massive amounts of energy to accelerate matter this highly.
Posted by: Dar   2006-03-10 19:07  

#15  Is it just me or should I be concerned that at 3 billion degrees anything burns?

One breach in the containment field Gordie and there goes Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the planet earth. But, what the heck, it's science!
Posted by: Grains Sloger8947   2006-03-10 18:21  

#14  Dar
can you elaborate on the magnetic containment? I should have known about the wavelength measurement (duh!), but I'm admittedly clueless about a magnetic field containing heat.

Sure no prob Dar.


You've got to Accent-tchu-ate the positive,

E-lim-my-nate the negative,

Latch on to the affifmative,

and Don't mess with Mrs bosons In-between! »:-)
Posted by: RD   2006-03-10 17:04  

#13  Magnetic containment is like Mars Flies in a Klein Bottle, couldn't help it. Magnetic containment keeps the matter in the center of your vessel or along the path of a beam using the properties of a magnetic field. Physics stuff.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK   2006-03-10 15:44  

#12  TC7860--Yes, one more question--can you elaborate on the magnetic containment? I should have known about the wavelength measurement (duh!), but I'm admittedly clueless about a magnetic field containing heat.
Posted by: Dar   2006-03-10 15:33  

#11  One thing that puzzles scientists is that the high temperature was achieved after the plasmaÂ’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.

This sounds like good old cold fusion.....well, okay maybe not really cold....

Do the ions decompose, at those temperatures, like into quarks or something to get that energy gain?
Posted by: AlanC   2006-03-10 15:16  

#10  I thought this part was interesting:

One thing that puzzles scientists is that the high temperature was achieved after the plasmaÂ’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.
Posted by: Gloting Shomonter6233   2006-03-10 14:38  

#9  temp is average kinetic energy of molecules.An average test tube of air has about 1 followed by about 19 zeroes of air molecules.If you can accelerate one atom or one molecule up to very superhigh velocities that velocity can be said to be superhigh temp,but the first contacts with other molecules slows the speedy one down.the energy density is infinitesimally small,and useless for ordinary purposes although i am sure here are scientific uses,etc
Posted by: j morrissey   2006-03-10 14:23  

#8  You measure the temp Dar, by looking at the wavelength of the light. Wein's Law. YOu contain it with a magnetic field. Any more questions?
Posted by: Thineth Crineger7860   2006-03-10 14:06  

#7  Headline: "Hottest March on record. Bush's fault."

They don't know how they did it.

If we had only signed Kyoto...
Posted by: Xbalanke   2006-03-10 13:47  

#6  Thai reds, Scotch bonnets, and a can of refried beans...
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2006-03-10 13:29  

#5  How can they measure this, I wonder? And, more importantly, how do you contain something like this? It's like that old brain teaser, how do you contain an acid that eats through everything!
Posted by: Dar   2006-03-10 13:26  

#4  Headline: "Hottest March on record. Bush's fault."
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-03-10 13:20  

#3  It's not the heat, it's the humidity...
Posted by: tu3031   2006-03-10 13:15  

#2  try3 billion degrees

mental note: don't forgit, patent chile recipe.

Posted by: RD   2006-03-10 13:12  

#1  Impressive, but I always try to bring such things into some sort of perspective, if possible. In this case, well, of course I'm forced to guess, since there's no precedent, but I still have doubts it would melt my ex's heart. ;-)
Posted by: .com   2006-03-10 13:04  

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