Nuclear Clock Breakthrough Enables Ultraprecise Timekeeping | Mirage News
Technology tamfitronics A powerful laser shines into a jet of gas, creating a bright plasma and generating ultraviolet light. The light leaves a visible white line as it interacts with leftover gas in the vacuum chamber. This process helps scientists precisely measure the energy needed to excite the thorium-229 nucleus, which is the core of a future nuclear clock. Credit: Chuankun Zhang/JILA The world keeps time with the ticks of atomic clocks, but a new type of clock under development - a nuclear clock - could revolutionize how we measure time and probe fundamental physics.An international research team led by scientists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder, has demonstrated key elements of a nuclear clock. A nuclear clock is...