Re: Lab Experiments Mimic a Star's Energy Bursts (Forwarded)

From: George Dishman (george_at_briar.demon.co.uk)
Date: 01/28/05 

Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 23:13:24 -0000

"Andrew Yee" <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca> wrote in message
news:JYRJd.3472$Yg6.928593@news20.bellglobal.com...
> National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, Maryland
>
...
> A key process that enhances the production of nuclear energy in the
> interior of dense stars has been re-created in the laboratory ...
>
> The NIST experiments, described in the Jan. 18 issue of Physical Review
> Letters,* involve temperature measurements of ultracold crystals as they
> melt. First, a "plasma" of tens of thousands of singly charged beryllium
> atoms is trapped using electric and magnetic fields and then cooled to
> almost absolute zero using lasers. When the lasers are turned off, the
> plasma begins to heat up. At 10 milliKelvin -- just 0.01 degree above
> absolute zero -- the temperature suddenly rises more than 10 billion times
> faster than predicted by theory. This burst of energy in a very cold
> system of highly interactive particles is believed to mimic events
> occurring inside the hot, dense interiors of stars, where plasmas of
> highly charged atoms undergo accelerated nuclear reactions.
...
> Scientists have suspected for decades that the fusion of atoms that powers
> stars is enhanced when the plasmas at their cores somehow reduce the
> natural repulsion between charged ions, increasing the chances that pairs
> of ions will collide and produce nuclear reactions. NIST researchers found
> that, at a certain temperature, their trapped beryllium ions also collided
> more frequently and that the plasma temperature suddenly shot up. ...

So the secret of how the beryllium sphere powers
the "NSEA Protector" is out. I always knew it was
all true!

George
;-)

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