Sun's scorching hot, spiraling wind re-created in a lab
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Scientists have replicated mini gusts of solar wind in the lab as a way to potentially unravel some of the sun's mysteries.
A team of physicists at the Wisconsin Plasma Physics Laboratory used a 9-foot-wide aluminum vacuum chamber called the Big Red Ball to confine a ball of plasma heated to an astounding 100,000 degrees Celsius, according to Science News.
A magnet in the center mimics the sun's magnetic field, and researchers then apply electric currents to send the plasma spinning and the wind streaming, the science site adds.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BRAIN SPEECH SIGNALS DECODED INTO WRITTEN TEXT IN BREAKTHROUGH RESEARCH
The inside of the Big Red Ball, a 3-meter-wide aluminum sphere at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, can be seen above.
MILLIONS OF HOLOCAUST RECORDS AVAILABLE TO ALL ONLINE FOR THE FIRST TIME
“We’re not re-creating the sun, because that’s impossible,” plasma physicist Ethan Peterson of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, told Science News. “But we’re re-creating some of the fundamental physics that happens near the sun.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Of course, there are some big differences between the actual sun and the scientists' Big Red Ball.
During the experiment, the wind also occasionally ejected little blobs of plasma, each about 4 inches across, researchers said.
Researchers hope that their work will unlock some of the sun's mysteries. (Photo by Florian Gaertner/Photothek via Getty Images)
According to Peterson, our sun ejects similar blobs, which are called plasmoids, but no one is sure why.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Big Red Ball could help provide an answer, Peterson explained.
The scientists' work was published in the journal Nature Physics.