Thanks to the development of the highest powered laser in the world,
physicists can recreate many astronomical phenomena in miniature, such as supernovas, tabletop stars or high-density plasmas that mimic brown dwarfs.
Known as the Texas Pettawatt, the laser was fired last week for a duration of a trillionth of the second at one quadrillion watts (a pettawatt). According to team member Todd Ditmire, a physicist at The University of Texas at Austin, it has the power output of more than 2,000 times the output of all power plants in the United States.
The laser is also brighter than the sunlight on the surface of the Sun.
The team at the Texas Center for High-Intensity Laser Science now plan to create and study matter at some of the most extreme conditions in the universe, including gases at temperatures greater than those in the sun and solids at pressures of many billions of atmospheres. They will also explore many astronomical phenomena in miniature. Dimitre, the director of the centre, said: “We can learn about these large astronomical objects from tiny reactions in the lab because of the similarity of the mathematical equations that describe the events.”
Texas Petawatt was funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration, an agency within the US Department of Energy.
You’ve read it. Now review it.
Date Published: April 08, 2008
More by this source
|
Print
|
Send to a friend
|
Rate & Comment
|
Keep up to date
If you found this item fun or informative, please let others know. Simply send to a friend or recommend it to even more people - on any of the following sites:
Latest Science News | reddit | digg.com | del.icio.us | rollyo | stumbleupon
More on lasers...
Honing semiconductor lasers
More applications possible thanks to a smaller beam.
Lasers point way to clean energy
It's a clean source of energy using fuel that can easily be extracted from sea water, and it isn't owned by Saudi Arabia. We're talking about fusion - and a multinational project led by British researchers that aims to use high-powered lasers to produce nuclear fusion, the same physical reaction powering the sun. If they succeed, they could solve the approaching world energy crisis without destroying the environment.
Laser fusion - the safe, clean way to produce nuclear energy
A multinational project led by British researchers aims to use a high-power laser to reproduce the physical reaction that occurs at the heart of the sun and every other star in the universe - nuclear fusion. If the project succeeds it has the potential to solve the world energy crisis without destroying the environment.
