In an amazing feat of creating fusion, South Korea's artificial sun has created a new record. South Korean physicists used a superconducting device known as KSTAR to light up at 100 million degrees for 20 seconds. In comparison to the Sun, the core burns at just 15 million degrees. Researchers have thus made a new world record by turning their artificial sun nuclear fusion reactor on and maintaining the high-temperature plasma. This milestone of an experiment was conducted on November 24. This month, China also turned on its Artificial Sun HL-2M Tokamak.

The researchers used the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device, which is called the artificial sun for this feat. The KSTAR uses magnetic fields to generate and stabilise hot plasma. The aim of this experiments is to make nuclear fusion power into a reality. It would be a clean source of energy and would transform the way of living if utilised properly. 14-year-old American Boy Creates Nuclear Fusion Reactor at his Bedroom with Parts Ordered Online Via eBay.

Until this point, the plasma operation with high temperatures of 100 million degrees were carried on last year and it worked for about 8 seconds. KSTAR touched 100 million degrees in 2018 for the first time but it did not last for more than 1.5 seconds. Talking about this success, KSTAR Research Center Director Si-Woo Yoon said in a report, "KSTAR's success in maintaining the plasma of high temperature for 20 seconds will be a major turning point in the race to secure technologies for the long-term operation of high-performance plasma, a critical component of a commercial nuclear fusion reactor in the future."

But this is not where they stop. The goal of the institute is to achieve the fusion ignition for 300 seconds by 2025. The devices undertake fusion reactions like those inside the sun on the Earth.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 29, 2020 05:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).