News Physics

A tiny, levitated glass sphere behaves like the hottest engine ever made

The effective temperature of the jiggling ball reached 13 million degrees Celsius

A tiny glass sphere (illustrated in green) jiggles in response to electric fields (red) as it interacts with air molecules (blue).

Megan Grace-Hughes/King's College London

By Emily Conover

The hottest engine ever created is, by some definitions, not an engine and not particularly hot.