China’s latest experiment involved creating its own artificial sun, which ran for 20 minutes at a whopping 70 million degrees – five times hotter than the real thing.
Using the machine, scientists hope to harness the power of nuclear fusion, which will put us one step closer to creating “unlimited clean energy” by replicating reactions that occur naturally in the sun.
Researchers at Experiential Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), a nuclear fusion reactor facility, have been busy testing an auxiliary heating system to make it more efficient and durable, according to Xinhua.
Known as an artificial sun, this facility mimics the nuclear fusion process that powers the real sun, which is powered by hydrogen and deuterium gases. Scientists from all over the world have been using Experiential Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) since 2006 for fusion-related experiments, designed and developed by Chinese scientists.
In one experiment, researchers maintained the “artificial sun” at 70 million degrees for 1,056 seconds, or 17 minutes, 36 seconds, South China Morning Post reported. It is a major milestone for the facility. At its core, the sun reaches temperatures of 15 million degrees.
