The World’s Largest Artificial Sun Is Powering up in Germany – Futurism

Synlight is the largest collection of film projector spotlights ever assembled in one room, and scientists in Germany are turningthem all on at once in the pursuit ofefficient and renewable energy.

Thisexperiment involving the worlds largest artificial sun is taking place in Jlich, a town located 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of Cologne, and it was designed by scientists from theGerman Aerospace Center (DLR). The device features149 industrial-grade film projector spotlights, and each one boasts roughly 4,000 times the wattage of the average light bulb.

When this artificial sun is turned on, it generates light thats 10,000 times as intense as natural sunlight on Earth. Swiveling the lamps and concentrating them on one spot can produce temperatures of around 3,500 degrees Celsius (6,332 degrees Fahrenheit), which is three times as hot as the heat generated by a blast furnace.

Every day, a huge amount of energy hits the Earth in the form of light from our Sun. While we do already have waysto harness the Suns energy, such as through solar panels, much of it still remains untapped. Scientists hope their experiments with Synlight will illuminate ways to tap into that wasted energy.

The experiment is not without its risks and costs, however. If you went in the room when it was switched on, youd burn directly, Bernard Hoffschmidtfrom the DLR told The Guardian. To avoid that, the experiment will take place inside a protective radiation chamber. This artificial sun consumes a vast amount of energy when powered up, as well a four-hour operation eats up as much electricity as a four-person household would use in a year so it is expensive.

This will all be worthwhile, however, if the Synlight experiment leads to more efficient and cleaner energy for the future.The first goal is to determine the optimal setup needed to use sunlight to power a reaction that produces hydrogen fuel a potential clean fuel source for cars and airplanes. Wed need billions of tonnes of hydrogen if we wanted to drive [airplanes] and cars on CO2-free fuel, Hoffschmidt explained. Climate change is speeding up so we need to speed up innovation.

In the future, the facility may be used to test the durability of space travel parts when blasted by solar radiation, so not only could Synlight help us deal with our energy crisis here on Earth, it could help us explore worlds far beyond our own, too.

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The World's Largest Artificial Sun Is Powering up in Germany - Futurism