ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The huge forces generated by the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories are being used to replicate the gravitational pressures on so-called “super-Earths” to determine which might maintain atmospheres that could support life. Astronomers believe that super-Earths — collections of rocks up to eight times larger than Earth — exist in the […]
Search Results for: Z
Record neutron numbers at Sandia Labs’ Z machine fusion experiments
October 27, 2020 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— A relatively new method to control nuclear fusion that combines a massive jolt of electricity with strong magnetic fields and a powerful laser beam has achieved its own record output of neutrons — a key standard by which fusion efforts are judged — at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z pulsed power facility, the most […]
New device in Z machine measures power for nuclear fusion
April 10, 2019 – 10:07 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If you’re chasing the elusive goal of nuclear fusion and think you need a bigger reactor to do the job, you first might want to know precisely how much input energy emerging from the wall plug is making it to the heart of your machine. If somewhere during that journey you could […]
Black hole models contradicted by hands-on tests at Sandia’s Z machine
August 28, 2017 – 9:50 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A long-standing but unproven assumption about the X-ray spectra of black holes in space has been contradicted by hands-on experiments performed at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine. Z, the most energetic laboratory X-ray source on Earth, can duplicate the X-rays surrounding black holes that otherwise can be watched only from a great distance and then theorized […]
Sandia’s Z machine receives funding aimed at fusion energy
June 29, 2015 – 10:20 am
Laser beam ‘smoothing’ with University of Rochester to play key role ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A two-year, $3.8 million award has been received by Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) to hasten the day of low-cost, high-yield fusion reactions for energy purposes. High-yield means much more energy emerging from […]
Sandia’s Z machine helps solve Saturn’s 2-billion-year age gap
June 26, 2015 – 8:35 am
Research supports 80-year-old prediction ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Planets tend to cool as they get older, but Saturn is hotter than astrophysicists say it should be without some additional energy source. The unexplained heat has caused a two-billion-year discrepancy for computer models estimating Saturn’s age. “Models that correctly predict Jupiter to be 4.5 billion years old […]
Iron rain fell on early Earth, new Z machine data supports
March 18, 2015 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have helped untangle a long-standing mystery of astrophysics: why iron is found spattered throughout Earth’s mantle, the roughly 2,000-mile thick region between Earth’s core and its crust. At first blush, it seemed more reasonable that iron arriving from collisions between Earth and planetesimals — ranging […]
Japanese city councilor journeys to end furor over Sandia Z tests
May 23, 2013 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Yasuyuki Kaneko left his wife and two small children at the end of April to fly from the northern Japanese city of Sapporo to Albuquerque. He stayed overnight at a small hotel a few blocks from the airport. The next morning, Kaneko — a Sapporo city councilor — took the final step of […]
Second Z plutonium “shot” safely tests materials for NNSA
May 11, 2011 – 7:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that researchers from Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories have completed their second experiment in the past six months at Sandia’s Z machine to explore the properties of plutonium materials under extreme pressures and temperatures. The information is used to keep the U.S. nuclear […]
Most Promising Engineer of the Year honor goes to Sandia scientist
October 5, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories research and development manager Bishnu Khanal was recently honored with the Most Promising Asian American Engineer of the Year award for his work in next-generation optical lithography process development for numerous technologies, along with his deep-reaching community service. According to Asian American Engineer of the Year, Khanal was selected […]
Sandia researcher wins career achievement award from Asian technical society
September 29, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers has selected Sandia National Laboratories materials scientist Hongyou Fan to receive its 2022 Career Achievement Award. “It is evident that you embody the reason SASE created this category, and we are proud to present you this award,” wrote the organization’s CEO and Executive Director Khanh […]
Scientists chip away at a metallic mystery, one atom at a time
September 28, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Gray and white flecks skitter erratically on a computer screen. A towering microscope looms over a landscape of electronic and optical equipment. Inside the microscope, high-energy, accelerated ions bombard a flake of platinum thinner than a hair on a mosquito’s back. Meanwhile, a team of scientists studies the seemingly chaotic display, searching […]
Creating diamonds to shed light on the quantum world
September 20, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Diamonds are a scientist’s best friend. That much is at least true for physicist Andy Mounce, whose work with diamond quantum sensors at Sandia National Laboratories has earned him the DOE’s Early Career Research Award. As a scientist in Sandia’s Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, he specializes in making microscopic sensors to try […]
Sandia wins 5 R&D 100 awards and a silver specialty award
September 19, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Competing in an international pool of universities, corporations and government labs, Sandia National Laboratories researchers captured four R&D 100 Awards this year and supported a fifth. One entry also won the R&D 100’s Special Recognition Market Disrupter Silver Award. R&D World Magazine — formerly R&D Magazine — presents the awards each year […]