A major roadblock to producing safe, clean and abundant fusion energy on Earth is the lack of detailed understanding of how the hot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions behaves at the edge of fusion facilities ...
Plasma Physics
May 22, 2020
10
185
A key issue for scientists seeking to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth is forecasting the performance of the volatile plasma that fuels fusion reactions. Making such predictions calls for considerable ...
Plasma Physics
Apr 16, 2020
1
855
When a fire extinguisher is opened, the compressed carbon dioxide forms ice crystals around the nozzle, providing a visual example of the physics principle that gases and plasmas cool as they expand. When our sun expels plasma ...
Space Exploration
Apr 15, 2020
17
661
Eight and a half years into its grand tour of the solar system, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft was ready for another encounter. It was Jan. 24, 1986, and soon it would meet the mysterious seventh planet, icy-cold Uranus.
Space Exploration
Mar 26, 2020
24
5083
In their interiors, stars are structured in a layered, onion-like fashion. In those with solar-like temperatures, the core is followed by the radiation zone. There, the heat from within is led outwards by means of radiation. ...
Astronomy
Mar 9, 2020
5
127
There's a wind that emanates from the sun, and it blows not like a soft whistle but like a hurricane's scream.
Space Exploration
Jan 16, 2020
4
57
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has observed a magnetic explosion the likes of which have never been seen before. In the scorching upper reaches of the Sun's atmosphere, a prominence—a large loop of material launched ...
Astronomy
Dec 17, 2019
3
1052
For decades, scientists have speculated about the origin of the electromagnetic radiation emitted from celestial regions that host black holes and neutron stars—the most mysterious objects in the universe.
Astronomy
Nov 27, 2019
17
1396
Since their discovery in the 1970s, scientists have developed a strong interested for magnetotactic bacteria, an intriguing microorganism that moves along the magnetic field lines due the magnetite particles they grow in ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 8, 2019
0
32
Bacteria and other swimming microorganisms evolved to thrive in challenging environments, and researchers struggle to mimic their unique abilities for biomedical technologies, but fabrication challenges created a manufacturing ...
Bio & Medicine
Oct 30, 2019
0
109
