The photograph I’d like to share is a brilliant example of...

The photograph I’d like to share is a brilliant example of sonoluminescence.  I’ve called this the dancing sulfuric acid bubble and is an example of nonlinear acoustics creating nanosecond flashes of blackbody light emanating from an 8,000K microplasma.  A bubble of xenon gas trapped inside concentrated sulfuric acid undergoes a roller-coaster of growth and collapse from the action of a resonant acoustic field.  An objective (left) focuses a high-intensity laser pulse into the fist-sized quartz resonator and seeds a bubble, which is then pulled into the center of the sphere.  The long camera exposure results in a swirling mass of light that traces the bubble’s path within the fluid.  Although the light appears continuous, this photograph represents >100,000 individual flashes of light!

I had the pleasure of studying this system a few years ago as a part of my PhD studies at UCLA, and am still awed by its beauty.  You can find sonoluminescence and many more interesting phenomenon at:

http://acoustics-research.physics.ucla.edu

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Thanks so much, very very cool!!