An international collaboration including researchers from
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has refined a key process in
understanding extreme plasmas such as those found in the sun, stars, at the
rims of black holes and galaxy clusters.
In short, the team identified a new solution to an
astrophysical phenomenon through a series of laser experiments.
In the new research, appearing in the Dec. 13 edition of the
journal Nature, scientists looked at highly charged iron using the Linac
Coherent Light Source (LCLS) free-electron laser. Highly charged iron produces
some of the brightest X-ray emission lines from hot astrophysical objects,
including galaxy clusters, stellar cornea and the emission of the sun.