Protostellar hour: a "short circuit" in space will help create a source of eternal energy

For the first time, Russian scientists have used observational methods to study how field lines rearrange in large magnetic fields in the vicinity of a massive protostar, the stellar "embryo", where thermonuclear reactions have not yet started. This event was accompanied by a flash of microwave radiation. The study allowed us to put forward a fundamentally new hypothesis that the main reason for the release of a large amount of energy was precisely the interaction of magnetic fields, which are gigantic energy reservoirs in space. How this can help in creating a source of infinite energy is described in the Izvestia article.

A flash in the stellar "embryo"

The release of enormous amounts of energy in space can occur due to the interaction of huge magnetic fields with each other - this discovery was made by Russian astrophysicists from Ural Federal University together with a team of scientists from China and Italy.

The findings were made during the observation of the supermassive protostar G36.11+0.55. This is a large space object that is located at a distance of more than 4 thousand light-years from our planet.

As the scientists explained, the protostar is the "embryo" of a future star. It is a large cloud of gas and dust that is compressed by gravity. Its core is already starting to heat up due to the high pressure in the center, but thermonuclear reactions have not yet started. This stage of a future star's life can last from 100,000 to 10 million years, depending on its mass. In this case, planets can form from the surrounding matter in the future.

According to the researchers, G36 is at an early stage of its formation and is surrounded by a dense disk of gas and dust. It actively attracts and accumulates matter, which makes it an ideal natural laboratory for studying the processes that occur during the birth of stars.

— In particular, during the observation of the object using ground-based telescopes, astronomers recorded an unusual flash of microwave radiation (maser), which lasted 90 days and released energy of ~103⁹ erg. (unit of energy. — Izvestia). This is about a million times more than the average solar flare, or about 170 billion times more energy than humanity consumes in a year. At the same time, it was discovered that changes in the brightness of the maser are synchronous with fluctuations in the magnetic field," Sergey Khaybrakhmanov, a researcher at the UrFU Laboratory of Astrochemical Research, told Izvestia.

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Magnetic fields are energy reservoirs

Usually, he explained, such events are associated with the accretion process — the fall of matter from the surrounding disk (possibly failed planets) onto the surface of the protostar. However, despite the power of the recorded outbreak, its scale turned out to be smaller than in other similar cases. This led to the assumption of a different physics of the phenomenon than that of analogues.

As a result, based on modern computational models, it was hypothesized that there was also an episode of increased accretion in G36. But at the same time, when falling on a star, a clot of matter "transferred" part of its magnetic field to it, which caused the unusual phenomenon.

— The accumulation of this excess magnetic energy near the surface of the star led to a magnetic reconnection — a regrouping of the lines of force, which is accompanied by an explosive release of energy. This is something like a cosmic "short circuit" that triggered the maser flare," said Sergey Khaybrakhmanov.

In his opinion, the main result of the study is the discovery of a clear interdependence between changes in the brightness of the maser and fluctuations in magnetic fields. This may mean that the flare is caused not just by the fall of matter onto the future star, but by magnetic processes.

The discovery also highlights the role of magnetic fields as energy reservoirs in space and their important function in the formation of star systems.

Protozdezda — natural laboratory

At the same time, according to the scientist, magnetic reconnections are present in many physical processes and their study will provide an opportunity to learn how to control them.

— For example, on Earth, researchers expect to obtain a cheap source of "eternal" fuel through a controlled thermonuclear reaction — the fusion of light atomic nuclei (isotopes of hydrogen), which releases enormous energy. However, it is necessary to master the methods of plasma retention, the temperature of which reaches tens of millions of degrees. One of the ways that will help achieve these goals is the use of magnetic fields," said Sergey Khaybrakhmanov.

The information obtained about events in the vicinity of the protostar can serve as field data to verify mathematical models of such installations, he added. This, in turn, will make it possible to build reliable thermonuclear reactors.

— In the study, scientists are considering the magnetic reconnection event in massive protostellar objects, which was first confirmed by observational data. This discovery expands the understanding of star formation processes, but it may also have practical significance," Nadezhda Shakhvorostova, senior researcher at the Laboratory of Interstellar Medium Spectroscopy at the Lebedev Astrophysical Complex of the Physical Institute, told Izvestia.

For example, she said, in tokamaks, devices for controlled thermonuclear fusion, magnetic reconnection and a number of other effects can cause plasma disruptions that interfere with its retention. By studying them in natural "space laboratories", scientists obtain statistics that are necessary to verify computational models. Also, real natural examples will allow you to set precise parameters for computer simulation, which will speed up the creation of workable installations. Studying the magnetic fields in protoplanetary disks will also help us better understand how our own Solar system formed.

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At the same time, the expert said, as the history of science shows, fundamental astronomical research often leads to unexpected practical results. For example, observations of quasars, the brightest objects in the universe, have become the basis for GPS navigation. And the methods created for the research of cosmic radio emission formed the basis of magnetic resonance imaging.

Also, the study of stellar "embryos" can become the basis of thermonuclear technologies of tomorrow, the expert concluded.

Reconnections of magnetic fields, which lead to the explosive release of gigantic energy stored in them, are a common phenomenon. They occur all the time in nature, including the Sun and the Earth's magnetosphere," explained Sergey Yazev, director of the Astronomical Observatory of Irkutsk State University, senior researcher at the Institute of Solar—Terrestrial Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In his opinion, the new examples are useful for understanding the physics of the process, and this is guaranteed to help future, if not thermonuclear, then other high-power energy systems.