Posted on 01/20/2018 9:28:33 PM PST by BenLurkin
[T]he study of GRBs have been complicated by two major issues. On the one hand, GRBs are very short lived, lasting for only seconds at a time. Second, all detected events have occurred in distant galaxies, some of which were billions of light-years away. Nevertheless, there are a few theories as to what could account for them, ranging from the formation of black holes and collisions between neutron stars to extra-terrestrial communications.
...
With the assistance of their collaborators in the US, France, the UK and Sweden, the team from Queens University Belfast relied on the Gemini laser, located at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK. With this instrument, which is one of the most powerful lasers in the world, the international collaboration sought to create the first small scale replica of GRBs.
By shooting this laser onto a complex target, the team was able to create miniature versions of these ultra-fast astrophysical jets, which they recorded to see how they behaved. As Dr. Sarri indicated:
In our experiment, we were able to observe, for the first time, some of the key phenomena that play a major role in the generation of gamma ray bursts, such as the self-generation of magnetic fields that lasted for a long time. These were able to confirm some major theoretical predictions of the strength and distribution of these fields. In short, our experiment independently confirms that the models currently used to understand gamma ray bursts are on the right track.
This experiment was not only important for the study of GRBs, it could also advance our understanding about how different states of matter behave. Basically, almost all phenomena in nature come down to the dynamics of electrons, as they are much lighter than atomic nuclei and quicker to respond to external stimuli...
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
The reason I ask the question is that perhaps the single most important technology needed to make the 21st century successful is one that collapses the cost of energy to a fraction of current costs in the way steam did for the 19th century and internal combustion and electric generators did for the 20th century.
so my thought was that perhaps less energy might be needed to produce gama rays to produce inertial confinement fusion than current lasers. Guess not.
Part the great excitement of the 1950’s-1960’s was that fission based nuclear power was dropping so fast that scientists thought that one day in the not distant future-—energy would be too cheap to meter. Three Mile Island in 1979 killed that idea because of redundant safety features required of new reactors jacked up their prices and kept them there.
Part of the excitement of the 4g nuclear community today is that thorium reactor designs present the possibility of the dropping electricity costs to below .01@kw/hr.
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I’ve just noticed a design I’ve not seen before. NASA is testing a mini nuclear reactor with the acronym KRUSTY (kilowatt reactor using stirling engine).
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/nasa-kilopower-nuclear-reactor-test/
Is there anything in that design that you could see that would significantly drop the price of nuclear power.
(Part of the game of killing costs is to be able to mass produce a reactor. But safety issues may well kill any idea of mass producing mini nukes that are not walk away safe like the thorium reactors.)
Therefor can refrigerator sized thorium reactors be produced and mass produced?
The promise of dirt-cheap energy through fusion has been like a carrot that keeps moving farther away as we reach toward it. Fission has inherent problems. Its fuel is by nature radioactive and its byproducts even more so. Loss of containment is a constant threat. Fusion eliminates both of these problems (or most of it, since tritium is mildly radioactive). Progress is being made, though. We could build a large fusion reactor today that would run on deuterium you can get from sea water, but it would cost $$$ that apparently no one is willing to invest in. But once we have it, it will be virtually free energy (since sea water doesn’t cost that much), and pollution free as well.
Thanks BenLurkin.
Terrestial gamma ray flash (TGF) produced in thunder storms were originally detected during experimental observations from aircraft targeting sprite and jet formation. Observations and data gathering continue in order to determine if any hazard exists for commercial air passengers.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.00997.pdf
I think I’ve heard of this before. There seems to be some consensus that they’re caused by what they call a “relativistic runaway electron avalanche”. Electrons can gain enough momentum to strike atomic nuclei, producing a sort of nuclear reaction. And there’s cosmic rays that also spawn antimatter particles, which annihilate to produce gamma rays.
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