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End of fossil fuels? China close to creating 'ARTIFICIAL STAR' three times hotter than sun

SCIENTISTS in China are a step closer to creating an 'artificial sun' using nuclear fusion, in a breakthrough that could break mankind's reliance on fossil fuels and offer unlimited clean energy forever more.

By TOM BATCHELOR

07:00, Mon, Feb 8, 2016 | UPDATED: 12:49, Mon, Feb 8, 2016

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Scientist working in a French nuclear fusion chamber

Chinese experts last week successfully produced hydrogen gas more than three times hotter than the core of the Sun.

Crucially, the scientists were able to maintain that temperature - 50 million°C - for 102 seconds.

The experiment means nuclear fusion experts are a step nearer to replacing depleting fossil fuels with limitless nuclear energy powered by the ultra-high temperature gas.

Out of this world solar imagery

Tue, January 19, 2016

Take a virtual journey through space with these beautiful photos

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  Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth largest moon, erupts a vast spray of water into space from its southern polar region [NHM]
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  Typhoon over Bay of Bengal [National History Museum]
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  This spectacular view looks down on Saturn’s northern regions, with its pole still in the darkness of the northern hemisphere winter. The rings cast a band of shadow across the gas giant world [National History Museum]
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  Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede, seen here on the right, is the ninth largest object in the solar system and is bigger than the planet Mercury. [NHM]
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  The oddly twin-lobed Comet 67P vents gas and dust about a month before perihelion taken in July 2015 [NHM]
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  A Plutonian Haze taken in July 2015 [NHM]
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  Jupiter’s Great Red Spot appears as a churning dynamo in this stormy image [NHM]
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  Antoniadi Crater near the lunar south pole taken in February 2014 [NHM]
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  Late afternoon on Mars taken in April 2006 [NHM]
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  Europa, an ice-covered ocean moon. Europa’s vast, ice-capped ocean is kept warm by the gravitational effects of Jupiter and its moons. [NHM]
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  In this luminous view of southern Europe, the Adriatic Sea with its many islands gleams in reflected moonlight. [NHM]
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  The western part of the Valles Marineris canyon system is seen here covered in morning water-ice and water-vapour ground fog. The canyon is more than six and a half kilometres deep in places, over three times deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Un [Instagram]
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  Stunning images show off the solar world [NHM]

Until now, Germany has been at the forefront of the quest for nuclear fusion after physicists there used 2 megawatts of microwave radiation to heat hydrogen gas to 80 million°C - but only for a fraction of a second.

Last week's experiment in China, which took place at the Institute of Physical Science in Hefei using a magnetic fusion reactor, heralded a massive leap in atomic research.

The reactor, officially known as the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), heated hydrogen gas to around 50 million Kelvins (49.999 million degrees Celsius), which is equal to a medium-scale thermonuclear explosion.

Weird findings on Mars

Wed, December 16, 2015

Take a look through some peculiar things seen on Mars from Elvis himself to a haunting figure of a woman.

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  An Elvis like figure graces the surface of Mars [IG]
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  This still image strikes an uncanny resemblance to a figure of a woman [IG]
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  A still from a NASA video on the surface of Mars seems to have captured a hermit crab [IG]
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  A still from a NASA video shows a bear like figure on Mars [IG]
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  A NASA video posted on youtube seems to have uncovered life peeking out of a rock [IG]
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  A woman like figure in the distance on the surface of Mars [IG]
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  This picture allegedly shows a monkey-like life form sitting on rocks and complete with a long tail [IG]
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  People have claimed that this is a three meter long mouse on Mars [IG]
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  Coloured for llustration, this stil looks to have found a dinasour like figure on the surface of Mars [IG]
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  Coloured to illustrate, these rocks seem to have an Ape's face carved into them [IG]
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  Another crab like figure is seen on the surface of Mars [IG]

This compares to the interior of the Earth's sun, which is calculated to be around 15 million Kelvins.

Scientists in Europe have so far reached temperatures higher than that but only for short periods of time because of fears that the gas would melt the reactor.

Chinese physicists achieved 50 million°C for well over a minute by employing a powerful magnetic field to keep the gas suspended inside the doughnut-shaped chamber.