Take a peek inside a giant star right before it dies

The biggest stars in the universe are some of the most fascinatingly complex objects to inhabit the cosmos. Indeed, giant stars have defied full explanation for decades, especially when they're near the end of their lives.

Fusion by strong lasers

Nuclear physics usually involves high energies, as illustrated by experiments to master controlled nuclear fusion. One of the problems is how to overcome the strong electrical repulsion between atomic nuclei which requires ...

Taking a new tangent to control pesky waves in fusion plasmas

Fusion combines light elements in the form of plasma—"the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei—"to generate massive amounts of energy. One of the ways that scientists help heat the ...

Fuel injection helps reduce magnetic island instabilities

Fusion is a non-carbon-based process for energy production, where lighter atoms fuse into heavier ones. Fusion reactors operate by confining a "soup" of charged particles, known as a plasma, within powerful magnetic fields. ...

Light my fire: How to start up fusion devices every time

How do you start a fusion reaction, the process that lights the sun and stars, on Earth? Like lighting a match to start a fire, you first produce plasma, the state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei that ...

New device in Z machine measures power for nuclear fusion

If you're chasing the elusive goal of nuclear fusion and think you need a bigger reactor to do the job, you first might want to know precisely how much input energy emerging from the wall plug is making it to the heart of ...

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