On a typical summer day, the blistering New Mexico sun can drive temperatures to more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit – hot enough to cook an egg on a sidewalk in minutes. Though this number might seem impressive, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque recently cooked up quite an accomplishment.

Using the Sandia Z machine, the world’s largest x-ray generator, Sandia project leader Chris Deeney and his team achieved temperatures of more than 2 billion degrees Kelvin, according to a press release by Neal Singer. To contrast, the hottest star is estimated to have a temperature of around 100,000 degrees Kelvin. Two billion degrees Kelvin equates to 3.6 billion degrees on the Fahrenheit scale.

Up until these ground-breaking tests, the Z machine was capable of producing plasma temperatures in millions of degrees. On an ordinary day, the Z machine electrically zaps a cylinder about the size of a spool of thread lined with thin tungsten wires. The pulse emitted into the tungsten spool can be as much as 300 terawatts, or about 80 times the world’s energy output. Immediately after the energy vaporizes the metal into a plasma of ions and electrons, a magnetic field crams the particles toward the center of the device, forcing them to release the absorbed energy in the form of x-rays and heat.

By using an array of sensors to record what comes out of this process, researchers have learned how to improve nuclear weapons. More importantly, however, scientists are using the Z machine to explore ways of harnessing the power of nuclear fusion, the same process that powers the sun. If a viable way to round up this power source is discovered, smaller and more efficient fusion plants could replace large ones and solve some of the world’s energy problems.

So what did they do differently and how did it work?

Instead of using tungsten wires, Singer said Deeney and the rest of the research team used thicker strands of steel wire in the core of the device. This change produced four times as much energy as researchers expected. By the rule of conservation of energy, this is an impossible equation – the energy had to come from somewhere.

Singer quoted Malcolm Haines, a researcher at the Imperial College of London, as having said the energy could have come from unexpected friction. Instead of the plasma collapsing and emitting the usual amount of x-rays and heat, Haines said he believes the plasma interacted with magnetic waves longer than normal. This caused the particles to bounce around and collide for a longer period of time, generating extra energy.

“At first, we were disbelieving,” Singer quoted Deeney as saying. “We repeated the experiment many times to make sure we had a true result and not an ‘Oops’!”

The Sandia team “pinched” the steel wire setup and ran resulting data through simulations for 14 months to validate their findings. After analysis, Sandia researchers discovered that they achieved the same result with each run.

For feasible fusion reactors, the future looks bright. By reaching this milestone, the amount of energy coming out of the fusion process might be, for once, more than the energy that is put in. Singer wrote that the Sandia team is already working on many projects as a result of their stunning findings. Until they find out how to trap this phenomenal power, however, we will have to keep looking for new ways to efficiently – and cleanly – produce enough power to keep the human race moving.

Dave Mosher is a senior in biology and journalism. He can be contacted at [email protected].