The Power of the SUN in the Palm of Human
Most of you have heard this dialogue from the famous movie Spiderman 2. Well, guess what we have completed it. The Kstar project (Korean star) has sustained the fusion reaction for 20 seconds. You guys might feel it's a tiny duration, but the effort to achieve this took decades of hard work.
Lots of countries have been into the making of an artificial sun due to the increase in demand for energy and the pollution of the earth. Nuclear fusion paves the way to solve these problems. For over a decade scientists have been working for making it a realization. Two years ago the same was achieved by china for 8 seconds. So, actually what happens in the artificial sun?
In our sun, the source of energy is a fusion reaction combining lighter atoms to make heavier atoms. In the Sun, hydrogen combines to form helium. For this reaction to take place, The isotopes of hydrogen(deuterium and tritium) are heated to extreme temperatures to change the state to the 4th state of matter PLASMA. Deuterium is derived from water. So, at these high temperatures, the protons and electrons get loosened up. The protons combine overcoming the force of repulsion and form Helium by losing some mass. This mass amount is very small but the energy released is huge and it can be calculated using Einstein’s relation e=mc². This is the chemistry behind Nuclear Fusion.
Unlike fission-fusion is not a chain reaction, the conditions should be maintained to achieve fusion. This consumes a lot of energy but the energy produced is more than that so efficiency is attained. The temperature attained in this artificial sun is 10 times the temperature of the sun. The scientists have conducted 110 experiments to attain this feat. A small fusion reactor could power the whole nation. Scientists of the United States of America have also helped in achieving this. By 2025, scientists are trying to make this fusion last for 300 seconds. Despite the complexity in making it possible, scientists are working hard for it as all the other sources proved to be harmful or inefficient in one way or another. Technology is improving day by day and being updated on it is one of the most important things in today’s world to achieve more.
Heard about Space graveyard or second moon! read here to find out
