People who find physics boring are grossly wrong. She is able to explain everything in the world, from eerie interactions on the tiny scale of atoms and particles to the behavior of entire universes. And if that's not enough, physics can be used to gauge how realistic future technologies are in science fiction. Space plasma physicist Martin Arker can explain the many nuances of lightsabers and the Death Star in the Star Wars universe, for example.
He is currently working on evaluating the realism of the blaster weapons used by Han Solo, among others - and how blasters can be compared to lightsabers. In fact, real-world versions of these weapons have long been developed. So when the Solo prequel movie came out, it’s time to talk more about it.
The key to understanding Star Wars technology will be plasma - the so-called "fourth state of matter" (in addition to solid, liquid and gaseous). They are free-flowing electrically charged particles that naturally interact with electric and magnetic fields. Plasma is common in space, but rarely occurs naturally on Earth. However, it can be created in the laboratory.
Powerful plasmoids
A common misconception about blasters is that they are laser weapons. But according to Star Wars canon, it wouldn't make sense. Instead, the authors stated that the blaster was "any type of long-range weapon that fired bunches of intense plasma energy, often mistaken for lasers," and that it converted "energy-rich gas into a glowing particle beam that could burn through a target." It turns out that the blaster bunches (glowing projectiles) are just drops of plasma, something like a lightsaber flying through the air.
Coherent plasma masses and associated magnetic fields are known as plasmoids. Within the Earth's protective shield - the magnetosphere - plasmoids are usually formed in the poorly understood process of magnetic reconnection. This is an explosive reconfiguration of the magnetic field lines that occurs in the presence of plasma, in particular at the place where the plasma merges. When this happens within our magnetosphere, charged particles are accelerated towards the upper atmosphere, creating the aurora. Huge amounts of material are also ejected from Earth in the form of plasmoids.
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However, creating a plasmoid on Earth is not easy. We can only demonstrate structures that rapidly expand and dissolve in air. The solution to this problem is to use magnets that trap hot plasma.
However, blaster balls are projectiles, so they cannot be externally supported by magnets throughout their movement. Fortunately, there is a solution. Since the plasma is highly conductive, it is possible to establish an electric current in the plasmoid itself. This current will generate magnetic fields that confine the plasma. These mechanisms are known as spheromaks, and over the past twenty years they have attracted additional interest in experiments in plasma physics.
Real versions
One way to create a spheromak is to use a "plasma railgun", a device that uses an external magnet to induce currents in the plasma and also propels the projectile to high speeds. In fact, spheromaks, which live for several hundred microseconds, have made it possible to develop speeds of up to 200 km / s. This is quite impressive and definitely allows them to be used as weapons.
In the 1970s, the SHIVA Star program (named after the multi-armed god in Hinduism) was created at the US Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque, which developed various branches of the practical application of plasma physics. One of them - MARAUDER - formed the basis of one of several US initiatives to create projectiles based on plasma.
This weapon was capable of producing donut-shaped plasma rings and balls of lightning that exploded with devastating thermal and mechanical effects upon impact, creating a pulse of electromagnetic radiation capable of shutting down electronics. But since 1993, the status of these weapons has remained uncertain.
The temperatures that could be achieved in such devices were a thousand times higher than those of the sun. With enough plasma, each blast would do huge damage, so the blaster from Star Wars looks quite realistic.
But how could this real-life blaster weapon compete with another iconic weapon from Star Wars, the lightsaber? A blaster bolt is essentially the equivalent of a lightsaber blade without a hilt. But when two magnetically confined plasmas meet, magnetic reconnection is inevitable. That is, when two lightsabers collide, an explosive effect would be generated, destroying both the weapon and its carriers. But with a blaster, you would be far from the explosion and completely unharmed.
Ilya Khel
