China has achieved a groundbreaking success in the world of science. It has developed a 42.02 tesla, record-breaking resistive magnet. It may be hard to imagine the power of this magnetic field, but for comparison, the magnetic field generated by this magnet is 800,000 times stronger than the Earth’s natural magnetic field. So how is this possible? How does it benefit science? The details are in our news…
Chinese scientists set a record: A magnet 800,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field!
This ultra-strong magnet was developed at the Steady High Magnetic Field Facility (SHMFF) laboratory in China. The giant record surpasses the 41.4 tesla record set by the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida in 2017. So what will this magnet do?
Scientists are said to be able to use the magnetic field to investigate many new types of matter in more detail, especially superconducting materials. This research will be used to discover new forms of matter or make existing materials more efficient.
Physicists such as Joachim Wosnitza from a laboratory in Dresden say that these strong magnetic fields could open new doors for the world of science. New magnetic fields offer scientists previously unimaginable possibilities to study materials and make more precise measurements.
However, achieving this impressive magnetic field is no easy task. This SHMFF magnet consumes 32.3 megawatts of energy. Although this energy consumption is quite high, resistive magnets are still one of the preferred options.
This is because these magnets can maintain a strong magnetic field for longer than superconducting magnets and it is possible to adjust the field strength faster. In fact, China has long been at the forefront of strong magnets.
They drew attention with a 45.22 tesla hybrid magnet introduced in 2022. A national laboratory in the US was able to briefly reach 45.5 tesla in 2019. However, the ability of such powerful magnets to operate with low energy consumption and to be kept cold is still a major engineering challenge.
