heliophysics - BLOGS - Blacksciencefictionsociety2024-03-29T14:40:09Zhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/heliophysicsFusion's Holy Grail...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/fusion-s-holy-grail2024-01-03T10:00:00.000Z2024-01-03T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12344656301,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12344656301,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12344656301?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p></p><p style="text-align:center;">A view of the assembled experimental JT-60SA Tokamak nuclear fusion facility outside Tokyo, Japan. <em><a href="https://www.jt60sa.org/wp/">JT-60SA.ORG</a></em></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;">Topics: Applied Physics, Economics, Energy, Heliophysics, Nuclear Fusion, Quantum Mechanics</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Japan and the European Union have officially inaugurated testing at the world’s largest experimental nuclear fusion plant. Located roughly 85 miles north of Tokyo, the six-story JT-60SA “<a href="https://www.popsci.com/science/nuclear-fusion-less-energy/">tokamak</a>” facility heats plasma to 200 million degrees Celsius (around 360 million Fahrenheit) within its circular, magnetically insulated reactor. Although JT-60SA first powered up during a test run <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/first-plasma-fired-world-s-largest-fusion-reactor" target="_blank">back in October</a>, the partner governments’ <a href="https://energy.ec.europa.eu/news/eu-and-japan-celebrate-start-operations-jt-60sa-fusion-reactor-and-reaffirm-close-cooperation-fusion-2023-12-01_en" target="_blank">December 1 announcement</a> marks the official start of operations at the world’s biggest fusion center, reaffirming a “long-standing cooperation in the field of fusion energy.”</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>The <a href="https://www.popsci.com/science/nuclear-fusion-less-energy/">tokamak</a>—an acronym of the Russian-language designation of “toroidal chamber with magnetic coils”—has led researchers’ push towards achieving the “<a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2024/01/03/fusions-holy-grail/" target="_blank">Holy Grail</a>” of sustainable green energy production for decades. Often described as a large hollow donut, a tokamak is filled with gaseous hydrogen fuel that is then spun at immense high speeds using powerful magnetic coil encasements. When all goes as planned, intense force ionizes atoms to form helium plasma, much like how the sun produces its energy.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong><em>[Related: </em></strong><a href="https://www.popsci.com/science/nuclear-fusion-second-success-nif/"><em><strong>How a US lab created energy with fusion—again</strong></em></a><strong><em>.]</em></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Speaking at the <a href="https://phys.org/news/2023-12-japanese-experimental-nuclear-fusion-reactor.html" target="_blank">inauguration event</a>, EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson referred to the JT-60SA as “the most advanced tokamak in the world,” representing “a milestone for fusion history.”</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>“Fusion has the potential to become a key component for energy mix in the second half of this century,” she continued.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><a href="https://www.popsci.com/technology/japan-jt60sa-fusion-reactor/">The world’s largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor is up and running</a>, Andrew Paul, Popular Science.</span></p><p></p></div>Sun Quake...https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogs/sun-quake2021-05-19T10:00:00.000Z2021-05-19T10:00:00.000ZReginald L. Goodwinhttps://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/members/ReginaldLGoodwin<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8943583499,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8943583499,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="662" alt="8943583499?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:8pt;">The first coronal mass ejection, or CME, observed by the Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) appears as a sudden gust of white (the dense front from the CME) that expands into the solar wind. This video uses different images, created by subtracting the pixels of the previous image from the current image to highlight changes. The missing spot in the image on the far right is an overexposed area where light from the spacecraft solar array is reflected into SoloHI’s view. The little black and white boxes that blip into view are telemetry blocks – an artifact from compressing the image and sending it back down to Earth.</span><br /> <span style="font-size:8pt;">Credits: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/SoloHI team/NRL</span></p><p></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, ESA, Heliophysics, NASA</span></span></p><p> </p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>For the new Sun-watching spacecraft, the first solar eruption is always special.</em></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>On February 12, 2021, a little more than a year from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/solar-orbiter-launch-takes-solar-science-to-new-heights">its launch</a>, the European Space Agency, and NASA’s Solar Orbiter caught sight of this coronal mass ejection or <a href="https://physicsandnano.com/2021/05/19/sun-quake/" target="_blank">CME</a>. This view is from the mission’s SoloHI instrument — short for Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager — which watches the solar wind, dust, and cosmic rays that fill the space between the Sun and the planets.</em></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>It's a brief, grainy view: Solar Orbiter’s remote sensing won’t enter full science mode until November. SoloHI used one of its four detectors at less than 15% of its normal cadence to reduce the amount of data acquired. Still, a keen eye can spot the sudden blast of particles, the CME, escaping the Sun, which is off-camera to the upper right. The CME starts about halfway through the video as a bright burst – the dense leading edge of the CME – and drifts off-screen to the left.</em></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><em>For SoloHI, catching this CME was a happy accident. At the time the eruption reached the spacecraft, Solar Orbiter had just passed behind the Sun from Earth’s perspective and was coming back around the other side. When the mission was being planned, the team wasn’t expecting to be able to record any data during that time.</em></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/a-new-space-instrument-captures-its-first-solar-eruption" target="_blank">A New Space Instrument Captures Its First Solar Eruption</a>, Miles Hatfield, NASA</span></span></p><p></p></div>