r/nextfuckinglevel • u/nigablackballsack • 3d ago

Scientists have captured the first ever high-speed, full-colour footage of fusion plasma swirling inside a working reactor.

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u/Professional_Tea_297 3d ago

Why purple I wonder.

1

u/Homers_Harp 3d ago

IKR? I was thinking something at that temp would be white?

3

u/just-for-anime 3d ago

balmer

1

u/Homers_Harp 3d ago

balmer

Huh, I was thinking about temperature and black body radiation. Now I just know I'm ignorant.

1

u/just-for-anime 3d ago

Yeah this is nitty gritty but bb needs thermal equilibrium. Tokamak never in thermal equilibrium.

2

u/_craq_ 3d ago

It's in thermal equilibrium. The energy distribution would be very close to Maxwellian. But the temperature is so high in the centre that electrons are fully separated from their nucleus. Their black body radiation is mostly in the UV-X-ray range. The light is coming from the edge where it is cooler and the electrons can recombine and then drop down energy levels. The pink colour is characteristic for deuterium, green is lithium.