this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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[–] notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world 214 points 2 months ago (4 children)

A headline without calling it an "Artificial Sun"?!

[–] Toribor@corndog.social 77 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The power of the sun in the palm of my hand.

[–] MalMen@masto.pt 16 points 2 months ago

@Toribor @notsoshaihulud with great power comes great responsibility

[–] Shardikprime@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

Don't worry, it will stabilize

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 67 points 2 months ago (4 children)

The amusing thing is that the sun is actually quite a shit fusion reactor. It's power per unit volume is tiny. It just makes it up in sheer volume. A solar level fusion reactor would be almost completely useless to us. Instead we need to go far beyond the sun's output to just be viable.

It's like describing one of the mega mining dumper trucks as an "artificial mule".

[–] notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think this energy density math really depends on whether only the core or the whole surface area is taken into consideration.

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Even the core only has an output of 200-300W/m^3.

[–] logi@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's about the energy output per volume of a 70 year old cyclist.

[–] DemBoSain@midwest.social 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Right, for the Americans here that hate metric.

Cyclist-years is a unit that has served us well for generations

[–] lurklurk@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Arguably, the nearby sun scale fusion reactor has been fairly useful for us. Nowadays we can convert its output directly into electricity using solar cells

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I never said it wasn't useful, just a very low efficiency reactor. Then again, if it was better, it would burn out faster, which would be bad for life on earth.

[–] Womble@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

It produces about the same power per cubic metre as compost does, which is pretty crazy when you think about it.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

What I'm hearing is that we should mine the sun and make better use of all that fuel.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Just make sure you do it at night.

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

That's part of the reason a moon base could be viable. The sun outputs a reasonable amount of helium 3, which is great for fusion reactions. Unfortunately it tends to sit at the top of our atmosphere and get blown away again. On the moon, it gets captured by the dust in collectable quantities.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Sure, but it makes up for that by having an idiot proof design.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 points 2 months ago

Someone once told me a sun is just a fusion nuclear pile reactor and... Like... I guess.

[–] yogurt@lemm.ee 25 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

They say "artificial sun" because that's what it is though, there's no fusion reactions here they're just microwaving hydrogen to millions of degrees to study the kind of thing that would happen IF somebody runs a fusion reactor for 22 minutes.

[–] scratchee@feddit.uk 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] SpicyLizards@reddthat.com 13 points 2 months ago

A bulb in a bong