The News of Us
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Science and Technology
  • Health
  • Subscribe Us
No Result
View All Result
The News of Us
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Science and Technology
  • Health
  • Subscribe Us
No Result
View All Result
The News of Us
No Result
View All Result

A magnetic trap captures elusive ultracold plasma

admin by admin
March 9, 2021
in Science and Technology

In terms of difficulty, trapping a plasma is right up there with catching a cloud and pinning it down, or holding a moonbeam in your hand. But physicists have devised a new way to magnetically bottle an ultracold plasma in the lab.

Using magnetism to trap frigid plasmas, in which particles move around sluggishly, could allow physicists to study plasma behavior in slow motion, researchers report in the Feb. 26 Physical Review Letters. That may reveal new details about how plasmas behave in much hotter, more frenetic environments — such as the roiling interiors of fusion reactors or stars (SN: 1/27/16).

“It takes a lot of tricks” to stopper a cold plasma, says physicist Thomas Killian of Rice University in Houston. He and colleagues first boiled a lump of strontium metal and channeled that vapor down a tube. There, light from a laser beam slowed the atoms almost to a standstill — effectively cooling them to just three-thousandths of a degree above absolute zero (–273° Celsius). Using a second laser, the researchers knocked an electron off each atom, creating a plasma of negatively charged electrons and positive strontium ions.

This ionized gas couldn’t be stashed inside an ordinary container. “We have to completely isolate this plasma,” Killian says. “If it bumps into a wall, [the particles] will just stick to the wall … or the wall will heat it up,” because even room-temperature equipment is much warmer than the plasma. Left out in the open, the plasma would dissipate within tens of microseconds. So Killian’s team created their plasma between two coils of electric current, which formed opposing magnetic fields. These equal and opposite magnetic forces on the charged particles held the plasma together for up to 500 microseconds.

[Read More…]

Previous Post

How Plastic Debris Makes Its Way Into Ocean Garbage Patches

Next Post

Metabolic Genetic Mutations Help Bacteria Resist Drug Treatment

Related Posts

Science and Technology

Bubble with titanium triggers titanic explosions

Science and Technology

Black hole is closest to Earth, among the smallest ever discovered

Science and Technology

Tesla drives on Autopilot through a regulatory grey zone

Science and Technology

Does Big Tech Hurt U.S. National Security?

Science and Technology

Data Is Power

Science and Technology

Hubble watches cosmic light bend

Next Post

Metabolic Genetic Mutations Help Bacteria Resist Drug Treatment

Follow us for latest Business News | Political News | Science & Technology News | Health News.

Subscribe Us

By clicking subscribe, I authorize: (1) The News Of Us to use and share my information in accordance with its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and (2) The News Of Us or third-party companies, including The News Of Us’s business partners, to contact me by email with offers for goods and services at the email address provided. Please note that the information you have provided to us may be supplemented with additional information obtained from other sources.

© 2021 The News of Us, - All Rights Reserved.

  • Subscribe Us
  • Contact Us
  • Unsubscribe
  • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Science and Technology
  • Health
  • Subscribe Us

© 2021 The News of Us, - All Rights Reserved.