Loading video... VIDEO: A 3D radiation magneto-hydrodynamic FLASH simulation of the experimental platform. The video shows a rendering of the magnetic field as a function of time, with grids and cylindrical shields shown... view more Credit: University of Rochester/Laboratory for Laser Energetics The universe is filled with magnetic fields. Understanding how magnetic fields are generated and amplified in plasmas is essential to studying how large structures in the universe were formed and how energy is divided throughout the cosmos. An international collaboration, co-led by researchers at the University of Rochester, the University of Oxford, and the University of Chicago, conducted experiments that captured for the first time in a laboratory setting the time history of the growth of magnetic fields by the turbulent dynamo, a physical mechanism thought to be responsible for generating and sustaining astrophysical magnetic fields. The experiments accessed conditions relevant to most plasmas in the universe and quantified the rate at which the turbulent dynamo amplifies magnetic fields, a property previously only derived from theoretical predictions and numerical simulations. The rapid amplification they found exceeds theoretical expectations and could help explain the origin of the present-day large-scale fields that are observed in galaxy clusters. Their results were published on March 8 in the