Scientists develop world’s fastest water heater

A group of scientists at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the US have succeeded in creating the world’s fastest water heater.

The product according to reports could help us better understand water’s unusual properties while improving how we carry out delicate investigations that rely on powerful X-ray lasers.

To better understand the physics behind creation, an international team of researchers hit a tiny jet of water with a flash from an X-ray laser called the Linac Coherent Light Source at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Needless to say the thin stream of water got hot fairly quickly.

“It is not the usual way to boil your water,” says physicist Carl Caleman from Uppsala University in Sweden.

“Normally, when you heat water, the molecules will just be shaken stronger and stronger.”

Instead, the flash of X-rays punched the electrons right off the water molecules, setting them off balance.

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“So, suddenly the atoms feel a strong repulsive force and start to move violently,” says Caleman.
That violent jiggling – for all purposes what we refer to as ‘heat’ – is equal to a scorching 100,000 degrees Celsius, way hotter than Earth’s core.

What’s more, it takes less than 75 femtoseconds to accomplish this, which doesn’t give the molecules making up the trickle of water much time to escape.
This sudden shock creates an unusual phase of water, one that is still a liquid but has the properties of a gaseous soup of charged particles.

“It has similar characteristics as some plasmas in the Sun and the gas giant Jupiter, but has a lower density,” says physicist Olof Jönsson from Uppsala University.

 

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