The Z Machine, Sandia National Laboratory, New Mexico, USA

The Z Machine is the largest x-ray generator on earth and is believed by many as the key to understanding controlled fusion. ‘The Z Machine uses a short burst of intense electricity - only a few 10 billionths of a second long - that forces an ionized gas to implode. The process is called a z-pinch because the pulse creates a magnetic field that squeezes particles in the vertical direction, which math books usually label as the “z-axis.” at the center of the z-pinch, in the space of a small soup can, gas particles race at each other at a million miles an hour. the collisions result in X-rays and extremely high temperatures.’ In 2006 the machine unexpectedly produced plasmas with temperatures in excess of 3.6 billion °F, hotter than the core of our sun.

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