China made an artificial star that's 6 time hotter than the sun .
Imagine if we could replace fossil fuels with our very own stars. And no, we're not talking about solar power. We're talking about nuclear fusion. And recent research is helping us get there. Meet the
Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, EAST for short.
EAST is a fusion reactor based in Hefei, China. And it can now reach temperatures over six times hotter than the sun. Let's take a look at what's happening inside. Fusion occurs when two lightweight atoms combine into a single, larger one, releasing energy in the process. It sounds simple enough, but it's not easy to pull off. Because those two atoms share a positive charge. And just like two opposing magnets, those positive atoms repel each other.
Stars, like our sun, have a great way of overcoming this repulsion. Their massive size. Which creates a tremendous amount of pressure in their cores. So the atoms are forced closer together making them more likely to collide. There's just one problem: We don't have the technology to recreate that kind of pressure on Earth.
But luckily, there's another way. You can also generate fusion with extreme temperatures. And that's exactly what devices like EAST do. The higher the temperature, the faster the atoms move around and the more likely they are to collide.
But it quickly becomes a balancing act. If the temperature is too hot, the atoms move too fast and zip passed each other. If it's too cold, the atoms won't move fast enough. So, the ideal temperature to generate fusion is around 100 million degrees Celsius. That's more than 6 times hotter than our sun's core.
Only a few fusion experiments in the world have surpassed this milestone. And the latest one was EAST. It sustained nuclear fusion for about 10 seconds before shutting down. And while it was a breakthrough for EAST, it's a long way from generating sustainable energy for the people of Earth.
Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, EAST for short.
EAST is a fusion reactor based in Hefei, China. And it can now reach temperatures over six times hotter than the sun. Let's take a look at what's happening inside. Fusion occurs when two lightweight atoms combine into a single, larger one, releasing energy in the process. It sounds simple enough, but it's not easy to pull off. Because those two atoms share a positive charge. And just like two opposing magnets, those positive atoms repel each other.
Stars, like our sun, have a great way of overcoming this repulsion. Their massive size. Which creates a tremendous amount of pressure in their cores. So the atoms are forced closer together making them more likely to collide. There's just one problem: We don't have the technology to recreate that kind of pressure on Earth.
But luckily, there's another way. You can also generate fusion with extreme temperatures. And that's exactly what devices like EAST do. The higher the temperature, the faster the atoms move around and the more likely they are to collide.
Only a few fusion experiments in the world have surpassed this milestone. And the latest one was EAST. It sustained nuclear fusion for about 10 seconds before shutting down. And while it was a breakthrough for EAST, it's a long way from generating sustainable energy for the people of Earth.
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