[davidrusu]

A shot of the pulse from within the reactor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMuOaTqdp4c

[nomel]

Isn't the stream supposed to be in the middle, away from the melty bits?

[willis936]

Yes, but the really hot part is not emitting visible light. ;)

If you're curious about why the bottom glows: ExB drift pushes electrons to the bottom. I'm sure that doesn't make sense, but unfortunately there isn't really a shortcut to understanding here. Some books are pretty accessible though (I'm a fan of The Future of Fusion Energy).

https://ebrary.net/174598/mathematics/drift_motion_energetic...

And, of course, there is always the freely available IAEA textbook:

https://www.iaea.org/publications/8879/fusion-physics

[darnfish]

What would happen if you stood in that

[Stevvo]

You contacting the plasma would cause it to collapse, but you would already by cooked. It's a chicken and egg question, because a plasma is never going to get started with a person inside; it needs a near perfect vacuum.

[rasz]

Not the same thing, but Russian scientist tested a proton beam with his head and lived to tell the tale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski

[JulianChastain]

You would die

[iLoveOncall]

You can tell when someone didn't read the article, because the video is at the very top of it :)

[ummonk]

I read through the whole article and didn't realize the video was there until I read this comment chain. I had just glanced past the video assuming it was an ad.