Scientists Discover A New Kind Of Fire, Yes Really

Scientists have identified a new kind of fire which burns more cleanly.

Scientists have identified a new kind of fire which burns more cleanly. 

According to a recently published study from the University of Maryland, or UMD, this phenomenon, called a blue whirl, “evolves from a fire whirl and burns with nearly soot-free combustion.” 

Fire whirls are often vertical funnels of flames that whip up potentially dangerous, debris-carrying winds.

They also tend to be yellow in color because a lack of oxygen causes incomplete burning and the creation of soot.

A blue flame, on the other hand, reflects “there is enough oxygen for complete combustion, which means less or no soot, and is therefore a cleaner burn.”

As a UMD press release states, “The Clark School team initially set out to investigate the combustion and burning dynamics of fire whirls on water.” 

As they were especially interested in the whirls’ use in cleaning up oil spills, they added liquid fuel to water to create a pool fire.

After manipulating the system upward with the help of tubes, the team noticed that the resulting fire whirl eventually turned into “a small, intensely whirling blue flame.” 

While additional research is needed to determine the applications of this discovery, it could potentially decrease the number of pollutants released into the environment during the cleanup of oil disasters.
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Scientists from NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter discussed their first in-depth science results in a media teleconference on May 25, 2017, at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT, 1800 UTC), when multiple papers with early findings were published online by the journal Science and Geophysical Research Letters.

The teleconference participants were:

Diane Brown, program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington
Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio
Jack Connerney, deputy principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
Heidi Becker, Juno radiation monitoring investigation lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California
Candy Hansen, Juno co-investigator at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona

Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. In its current exploration mission, Juno soars low over the planet’s cloud tops, as close as about 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers). During these flybys, Juno probes beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studies its auroras to learn more about the planet’s origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

For more information about the Juno mission, visit:
https://nasa.gov/juno
https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/
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39 thoughts on “Scientists Discover A New Kind Of Fire, Yes Really”

  1. "New" Is a way of saying it, it is like a 'life hack"you never know it is there until someone/ something shows you it has been there the whole time…

    Reply
  2. I've got one:
    Higher efficiency in energy conversion from fossil fuels to electricity and/or heat, thereby decreasing oil and coal prices altogether.

    Reply
  3. Fucking Click Bait.

    This isn't a new kind of fire. Disliked and reported because you really pushed the limit.

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  4. At 12.30 isn't it obvious that the surface appearances are a result of deeper processes which are not 'mixed-up'? The variety of formations on the surface surely reflects the variabilty of the underlying processes. Great science though to confirm this thank NASA

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  5. A planet that is 1300 times bigger than our earth. Thank you so much for sharing this valuable information. We keep learning everyday more and more.

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  6. I think that the whitish cyclones at the north pole come up from deeper inside Jupiter, surfacing and pushing what had been the overlying gas outward in concentric waves moving through the top of the atmosphere. The cyclone, in the middle of those expanding concentric waves, spins a while, until it loses energy to its surroundings. The aging cyclone loses integrity of shape and becomes an irregular whitish feature that dissolves into the general background chaos. But more young cyclones are always bubbling up to replace the old ones that disappear.

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  7. The south pole is probably ammonia poor. What we might be seeing is a clear view of blue liquid metallic hydrogen instead.

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  8. It's so sad Juno will have to end soon and can't go bzck home. But huge knowledge Juno have shared to us that can't be erased in the memories of generations. Thanks NASA, Juno will not be forgetten ….

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  9. Fascinating! Thank you. My thirst for [more] knowledge about the solar system has been stimulated i.e. enhanced yet again. Keep up the good work!

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  10. Flat earthers: Like the flies going into a open kitchen window.

    Use a telescope for once and let someone teach you how to use it you annyoing brain cancer ritten fools.

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  11. That image from the north pole seems to have its colors intensified. The originals seems way lighter in the bluish tone. Thing is, the way I see it, the bluish tone could be the interior of Jupiter, not necessarily something at the most external layers. If that metallic hydrogen is represented properly, in color I mean, could that be a sort of "clear sky" that let us look deeper into Jupiter?

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  12. if anyone thinks those are real "photos" of a planet which is 365 million miles away from earth, you may want to think real hard about this reality. I will admit that they are certainly beautiful PAINTINGS!

    Reply

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