TOP 7 HOTTEST PLACES IN THE UNIVERSE The universe is a fantastic place where
objects can reach several million degrees Celsius temperatures. You might think your
morning coffee is the hottest there is, but most of the hottest places are the cores of
stars or black holes. *Introduction*
It is not surprising that the cores of stars are generally the hottest places because nuclear
fusion occurs, which is the union of two nuclei that gives rise to a heavier element and a lot
of energy. For all-stars, the element that fuses is hydrogen; they need a lot of it to stay bright.
When we hear the word temperature, we relate it to things like heat or cold, to the notion that
if one object is hotter than another, it has a higher temperature. The temperature is also
related to energy, so if a body is scorching, it means that its particles have a lot of energy.
To warm up... It is evident that the surface of our planet has increased its temperature in
recent years, reaching higher and higher figures; however, in 1913, a record temperature of 56.7 °C
was recorded in Southern California at a place called Death Valley. Sounds dangerous, doesn't it?
Despite this, other places on our planet become much hotter naturally. For example,
the core of the Earth can reach a temperature of 6,000 ° C; this is due to the pressure exerted
inside it that causes the nuclear fission of radioactive elements such as uranium and plutonium
that contribute significantly to maintaining that temperature almost invariably. Very hot.
If the temperature reached in Death Valley may sound overwhelming,
some things can seem like absolute hell. From this moment, temperatures are incomprehensible
to the human being in terms of imagination. These are "the hottest places in the universe."
1. SURFACE AREA OF THE SUN: 5,500 °C The first stop on our journey to
increasingly impressive temperatures is 150 million kilometers away.
The Sun is a yellow dwarf that, for our system, is the center of attention
because it exerts a strong gravitational attraction on the other planets and makes
them revolve around them. Despite being a dwarf star, it is 1,300,000 times larger than Earth.
The Sun consists of 71% hydrogen, 27% helium, and 2% heavier elements; In addition, it has several
zones, which we can consider as the surface to one that receives the name of the photosphere,
this is the visible part of the Sun where the flares and sunspots that we are used to seeing in
astronomical photographs are presented. But don't look at it directly! Look for special filters.
The irregularity on the surface of the Sun is due to the processes that occur in the next inner
layer called the convective zone, where scorching gases ascend that originate as a result of the
fission of hydrogen in the core. These gases are excellent as they surface and descend inward
to carry out the process again. What happens in the core is a topic that we will touch on later.
Scientists believe that the hydrogen in the core has been depleted over the years,
but fear not, our star king will continue as we know it for about 5.5 billion more years.
After this, it will become a red giant for a few billion years and finally a white dwarf.
2. RED HYPERGIANT SURFACE: 35,000 °C If we thought that the word SUPER refers
to something very, very big, imagine what HYPER means. A hypergiant is a massive star; they are
the largest and most luminous in the universe. Although massive is not synonymous with large,
some of the most massive objects, such as black holes, are relatively small.
Red hypergiants have up to 100 solar masses, which is close to the theoretical maximum limit
that states that a star cannot exceed 120 solar masses. A solar mass is equivalent to the mass
of our Sun, which is used as a reference because it is the closest star to us.
Due to its large size, its core is highly pressurized, and that is why it reaches
temperatures of up to 35,000 ° C. However, being a star at the end of its life cycle,
its energy is decreasing, so it is impossible to reach higher temperatures.
But why does a star die? When they run out of hydrogen at their core, they start using helium,
which causes the star to burn more quickly. As the heat and pressure inside increase, the
core begins to "swell" as a sign that the star is approaching the end of its life relatively soon.
In rare cases, red hypergiants have an average life span of 1 to 3 million years
before becoming supernovae or hypernovae. After this, it has been postulated that they reach
the end of their life as a black hole. Very little is known about hypergiants,
as they are extremely rare. Until recently, only 7 hypergiants were known in the Milky Way.
One example is VY Canis Majoris, the largest known and 2,100 times larger than our Sun.
3. BLUE SUPERGIANT: 50,000 °C Blue supergiant stars result from the evolution of
massive stars that expanded as a result of their hydrogen shortage. These reach between 15-20 solar
masses, and the energy they produce is so much that they reach temperatures of up to 50,000 ° C;
this gives them their characteristic blue color. Blue supergiant stars are somewhat rare, as stars
go through this phase quickly and give rise to type II supernovae when all their nuclear fuel
is exhausted. A well-known example of this type of star is Rigel, in the constellation of Orion.
4. WR 102: 210,000 °C It is a hyper massive
Wolf-Rayet star located in the constellation of Sagittarius and reaches temperatures of up
to 210,000 ° C, one of the hottest known to date. Wolf-Rayet stars are also somewhat rare; they are
young stars of very massive size that still have some hydrogen inside but fuse it with helium,
nitrogen, or oxygen (two of the first exposed on their surface).
WR 102 is only one of four stars in the Milky Way with oxygen sequences inside
and one in six considering the outer galaxies. Although it is one of the hottest,
it only has 16.1 solar masses. WR102 is likely to explode as a supernova within 1500 years.
5. CORE OF THE SUN: 15 MILLION °C We've reached almost half of our ranking, and
things have become quite heated. In the beginning, we commented that in the core of stars, nuclear
fission processes are carried out using hydrogen as fuel, which forms a heavier element: helium.
It seems that the core of all bodies is the actual hell of these. But, being logical,
if this place is the vessel where that process that gives energy to a star in a long way occurs,
how can it not be hot? The Sun's core can reach more than up to 15 million degrees Celsius.
There is a layer that surrounds the core called the radioactive zone; through it,
the energy generated towards the surface of the Sun is diffused. It is not a quick process because
the layer contains a gas so dense that it can take a few hundred thousand years to pass through it.
6. EXPERIMENTAL ADVANCED SUPERCONDUCTING TOKAMAK (EAST): 70 MILLION °C
We are back on planet Earth. The EAST is a nuclear fusion reactor, better known
as the "artificial sun of China" because it mimics the Sun's power generation process.
This project is carried out at the Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP) in Chengdu, China;
it set its world record earlier this year by maintaining a 70 million °C for 17 minutes.
The reactor uses hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuel, generating helium and large amounts of
energy, which was demonstrated. It was built to produce clean energy in an unlimited way as soon
as it stabilizes and stays on track for longer. Remember that there is a lot of pressure in the
core of stars? This allows the fusion process to be carried out in such an environment.
What was used to compress the hydrogen to that point where powerful magnetic fields were used.
It is expected that a commercial version of this project will be available by 2025.
Who knew we would have the Sun in the palm of our hand, literally.
7. GENEVA LARGE HADRON COLLIDER: 4 TRILLION °C It is the largest particle accelerator globally
and is located just outside Geneva, Switzerland. In this collider, physicists from the European
Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) accelerate subatomic particles such as protons
to speeds close to that of light. They collide and give rise to smaller particles that exist
for a brief period. These resulting particles are studied thanks to detectors such as ATLAS or
ALICE; this knowledge allows us to understand better how matter is related.
This is not the only surprising thing because temperatures of up to 4 trillion ° C have been
reached inside the collider. If, as incredible as it may seem, the hottest place in the universe is
under Geneva. But do not panic; this temperature, like the particles that originate in shocks,
occurs for a very, VERY short period. The issue has become increasingly hot, so it is
worth asking ourselves at this time ... Is there a temperature limit? Yes, the Planck temperature.
According to quantum theory, this is the highest temperature that can occur in our reality.
Imagine that an object emits a wave of a specific size according to its temperature
and that this wave becomes smaller and smaller as the temperature increases.
A limit measure to which this wave can be reduced is called the Planck length, which is 1.6x10-35 m.
Two quintillion times smaller than a hair! There can be no more tiny thing than that
since that length is the minimum distance that can exist between any two particles.
According to theoretical scientists, the Planck temperature is 141.000 trillions of °C.
Although this figure sounds like something impossible to obtain and, for obvious reasons,
it has only been reached. Theoretically, it is believed that this temperature was reached
13.7 billion years ago, just after the Big Bang. If this temperature came to exist in some object,
it would be hotter than the temperature itself. It would be so hot that, theoretically, it could
not be considered temperature. It sounds like a crazy thing, but I don't know what would happen
if Planck's temperature were to be exceeded. If black holes form when a massive star becomes
a supernova and implodes, we are talking about the concentration of a lot of energy at the same
point. We can then say that if the Planck temperature is reached in a finite place,
a black hole would be created instantaneously. Holes that are created from energy are called
Kugelblitz. According to Einstein's general relativity, after the hole is created, the
energy that gave rise to it ceases to matter. This is something that science cannot yet comprehend.