"Magnetorotational instability" seen in an experiment

From: Sam Wormley (swormley1_at_mchsi.com)
Date: 12/02/04 

Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 04:15:15 GMT

Astrophysics in the lab (Dec 1)
   http://physicsweb.org/article/world/17/12/6
    Magnetized gases are ubiquitous in astrophysics, and the universe would
    be a very different place without them. As they collapse under their own
    gravity, huge clouds of cold gas form rotating "accretion" disks that
    may ultimately form stars and planetary systems. Accretion disks are
    also crucial in observations of black holes and binary systems. To
    understand the behaviour of accretion disks, it is therefore vital to
    study the properties of magnetic fields in rotating fluids.
    "Magnetorotational instability" was only finally understood in 1991 but
    the phenomenon has not been seen in an experiment until now.