Posted by tourdemars to Technology at March 4, 2005 09:48 AM

Just as blowing up a bubble leads to a pop, so can shrinking it. Rapidly collapsing bubbles have long been known to reach astonishing temperatures. Now scientists have measured just how hot. And they're surprised. "When bubbles in a liquid get compressed, the insides get hot – very hot," said Ken Suslick of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "The temperature we measured – about 20,000 degrees Kelvin [35,540 Fahrenheit] – is four times hotter than the surface of our Sun."