TGIF, since that means 10 more facts. This week I just have to tell you little bit about fusion - Fusion on a Friday 😉 Hope you enjoy it!
- Fusion is when two (light) nuclei merge (fuse) together to form a heavier nucleus - it's the opposite of fission. (Read more about fission HERE and HERE)
- When very light (atomic) nuclei, like for example hydrogen and hydrogen, or helium and helium, or hydrogen and helium, fuse, they produce energy 😀 😀
- The sun (and all other stars in the universe) get their energy from nuclei that are fusing (like hydrogen and hydrogen, or helium and helium, or hydrogen and helium - or other nuclei)
- The different elements in the periodic table (up to iron) are made from fusion in stars/suns (but the heavier ones, like gold, or thorium, or uranium, for example are made in the big explosions in space)
- If you check the mass of the nuclei you start out with, and the mass of the nucleus you get after the fusion (so, checking how much they weigh, that is), it weighs less after the fusion than before - this extra mass that suddenly is "gone" hasn't really disappeared, but it is released as energy <3 E=mc2 <3
- It would be really really cool if we could produce energy from fusion, like the sun is doing - but so far we can't do it...:/ (We manage to get nuclei to fuse, but we use more energy than what we get out.)
- Since nuclei is made out of protons and neutrons, they have a positive charge, and therefore they REALLY don't want to get so close to each other that they fuse - it's like trying to push the same pole of two extremely strong magnets together; it doesn't work (but it does work in the sun, since it's very hot and very high pressure, so there the nuclei just fuse all the time :D)
- I think it's really fascinating, and a little weird, that you get all this energy from two opposite reactions - either by fusing light nuclei, or splitting heavy ones... <3 nature <3
- If you managed to make a fusion power plant, you wouldn't have the problem with radioactive waste, that you get from a fission power plant (a normal nuclear power plant) - so that's very nice...
- ...however, fusion is hard :/ We don't manage to do it (without putting more energy in than we get out) yet; but who knows what will happen in the future...? 😉
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Yesterday was date night with my Handsome - we went to Champagneria at Mathallen (our favourite place these days, I think), snacked tapas and drank their delicious self imported Cava (nom nom nom) <3
He just left for a cabin trip with a friend, and Alexandra and me already miss him...but we will have nice weekend together too, and it will be even better to see him again on Sunday <3<3<3
Happy weekend everyone!
And the Exciting thing about fusion, physics and life is all the remaining mysteries where nature says: " see what I can do, and now you tell me how I do it" Like the light of Hessdalen, gamma ray bursts and antimatter generated in our own atmosphere, or the wonderfull but missed opportunity that started 26 years ago:
http://www.iccf19.com/_system/download/abstract_poster/AP52_Scarborough.pdf