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Concept

sonoluminescence

A mantis shrimp is depicted inside a transparent sphere, with its body partially submerged in water, illustrating the concept of sonoluminescence where short flashes of light are emitted from imploding bubbles driven by sound waves.

The emission of short flashes of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid driven by sound waves or, in the mantis shrimp's case, by a mechanical strike. The mechanism inside the collapsing bubble is still debated. Candidates include blackbody radiation from compressed gas, bremsstrahlung from an ionised plasma, or something stranger. Temperatures of several thousand kelvin have been measured indirectly.

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