Two of the largest images ever yet on IotD, and two more images that really challenge the JPG format. Suggested by xoB from
yesterday's APoD.
This is the Z Machine, which recently created the hottest man-made temperature ever. Unexpectedly.
And it's not operated by some evil overlord, but by Sandia National Laboratories. The machine, according to the APoD...
Quote:
|
purposely creates high temperatures by focusing 20 million amps of electricity into a small region further confined by a magnetic field. Vertical wires give the Z Machine its name.
|
Huh. Well let's try
Wikipedia:
Quote:
|
The machine operates by releasing an electrical pulse and associated magnetic field. The energy from a 20-million-ampere electrical discharge vaporizes an array of thin tungsten wires and a powerful magnetic field crushes the ensuing plasma. The collapsing plasma produces X-rays which create a shock wave that bears on the material being tested. The powerful fluctuation in the magnetic field (or "electromagnetic pulse") also generates electric current in all of the metallic objects in the room (see picture at right).
|
So how'd it make that hot temperature?
Quote:
|
In 2006, the Z Machine produced plasmas with temperatures in excess of 2 GK (10<sup>9</sup> K) or 3.6 billion <sup>o</sup>F. Project scientists were doubtful about the results, but after fourteen months of computer modeling and further tests, they have concluded that the results are, indeed, valid. It is believed the high temperature plasmas were achieved by using a slightly larger spool of wires with thicker steel wires substituted for the usual tungsten wires.
|
So all the sparky bits are just a side-effect of the real thing going on in the center.
But it's purty, ain't it?
