3 ms·

> and most rely on a deuterium-tritium thermonuclear fusion approach that requires the creation of ludicrously hot temperatures, much hotter than the surface of

> and most rely on a deuterium-tritium thermonuclear fusion approach that requires the creation of ludicrously hot temperatures, much hotter than the surface of the Sun, at up to 15 million degrees Celsius (27 million degrees Fahrenheit). Surface of the Sun - 6000 C Center of the Sun - 15000000 C

dmos62 7y ago
It's not often that the child in me goes "that's awesome!", but this is one of those times.
- SamBam 7y ago
  Assuming you're talking about the temperature, it's always been a source of human pride to me that the hottest place in the entire universe, as far as we are aware, has been created at the LHC on Earth. Barring other species as intelligent as ours elsewhere (which is of course possible, but unknown), the very hottest thing in the entire unimaginably-large universe full of exotic stars and black holes and supernovae, was created by a tiny group of apes on a minuscule planet orbiting a smallish, boring star on the unfashionable side of a galaxy.
  - miscPerson 7y ago
    That strikes me as... a strange claim, considering how fast the OMG particle whizzed by. Per Wiki: > The energy of this particle is some 40 million times that of the highest energy protons that have been produced in any terrestrial particle accelerator. Presumably wherever these extreme energy protons are coming from is rather warm. Is there some reason to think the LHC has higher temperature? Not a physicist; could be something like LHC having larger bunch sizes... but since we don’t know what causes these particles, it seems like we don’t really know the source temperature.
FredrikMeyer 7y ago
I think they might be thinking of the corona of the sun > The temperature in the corona is more than a million degrees, surprisingly much hotter than the temperature at the Sun's surface which is around 5,500° C https://scied.ucar.edu/solar-corona https://scied.ucar.edu/solar-corona
- willis936 7y ago
  Fusion happens in the core of stars but is powered by gravity. “Temperature” in this case is individual particle speed (in eV) because the particle speed distribution is not necessarily Boltzman. Higher particle speeds are needed because our confinement fields are weaker than the force of gravity inside a star.
  - DonHopkins 7y ago
    Most SF stories have artificial gravity generators, because it simplifies plots and lowers production costs. But is there actually a chance in hell that we'll ever have that kind of control over gravity?
    - willis936 7y ago
      Probably not, but it does help with storytelling. You need things like exotic matter and time travel. Space magic seems to mostly be all the same thing: negative mass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10AP7tio408 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10AP7tio408
    - ekimekim 7y ago
      The Expanse offers a more realistic take to the same effect: With sufficiently efficient fuel, the fastest path from A to B is by constantly accelerating (more or less) towards it until you reach halfway, then flipping and constantly decelerating until you arrive. Under this kind of trajectory, you're under constant acceleration of, say, 1g the whole time. This means you effectively have gravity for the entire trip, as long as you've designed your ship such that the floor is in the same direction as you apply thrust - think less traditional ship decks and more like a skyscraper. Another realistic option, of course, is a rotating section. But this generally requires massive, "ugly" ships to work so it's pretty rare in fiction.

dmos62 7y ago

It's not often that the child in me goes "that's awesome!", but this is one of those times.

SamBam 7y ago
Assuming you're talking about the temperature, it's always been a source of human pride to me that the hottest place in the entire universe, as far as we are aware, has been created at the LHC on Earth. Barring other species as intelligent as ours elsewhere (which is of course possible, but unknown), the very hottest thing in the entire unimaginably-large universe full of exotic stars and black holes and supernovae, was created by a tiny group of apes on a minuscule planet orbiting a smallish, boring star on the unfashionable side of a galaxy.
- miscPerson 7y ago
  That strikes me as... a strange claim, considering how fast the OMG particle whizzed by. Per Wiki: > The energy of this particle is some 40 million times that of the highest energy protons that have been produced in any terrestrial particle accelerator. Presumably wherever these extreme energy protons are coming from is rather warm. Is there some reason to think the LHC has higher temperature? Not a physicist; could be something like LHC having larger bunch sizes... but since we don’t know what causes these particles, it seems like we don’t really know the source temperature.

FredrikMeyer 7y ago

I think they might be thinking of the corona of the sun > The temperature in the corona is more than a million degrees, surprisingly much hotter than the temperature at the Sun's surface which is around 5,500° C https://scied.ucar.edu/solar-corona https://scied.ucar.edu/solar-corona

willis936 7y ago
Fusion happens in the core of stars but is powered by gravity. “Temperature” in this case is individual particle speed (in eV) because the particle speed distribution is not necessarily Boltzman. Higher particle speeds are needed because our confinement fields are weaker than the force of gravity inside a star.
- DonHopkins 7y ago
  Most SF stories have artificial gravity generators, because it simplifies plots and lowers production costs. But is there actually a chance in hell that we'll ever have that kind of control over gravity?
  - willis936 7y ago
    Probably not, but it does help with storytelling. You need things like exotic matter and time travel. Space magic seems to mostly be all the same thing: negative mass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10AP7tio408 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10AP7tio408
  - ekimekim 7y ago
    The Expanse offers a more realistic take to the same effect: With sufficiently efficient fuel, the fastest path from A to B is by constantly accelerating (more or less) towards it until you reach halfway, then flipping and constantly decelerating until you arrive. Under this kind of trajectory, you're under constant acceleration of, say, 1g the whole time. This means you effectively have gravity for the entire trip, as long as you've designed your ship such that the floor is in the same direction as you apply thrust - think less traditional ship decks and more like a skyscraper. Another realistic option, of course, is a rotating section. But this generally requires massive, "ugly" ships to work so it's pretty rare in fiction.