Z Machine Sets Unexpected Earth Temperature Record
Why is this plasma so hot? Physicists aren't sure. What is known for sure is that the Z Machine running at Sandia National Laboratories created a plasma that was unexpectedly hot. The plasma reached a temperature in excess of two billion Kelvin , making it arguably the hottest human made thing ever in the history of the Earth and, for a brief time, hotter than the interiors of stars. The Z Machine experiment, pictured above , purposely creates high temperatures by focusing 20 million amps of electricity into a small region further confined by a magnetic field . Vertical wires give the Z Machine its name. During the unexpected powerful contained explosion, the Z machine released about 80 times the world's entire electrical power usage for a brief fraction of a second. Experiments with the Z Machine are helping to explain the physics of Solar flares , design more efficient nuclear fusion plants , test materials under extreme heat, and gather data for the computer modeling of nuclear explosions.