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In breakthrough, lasers re-create conditions in planets' cores
sf gate ^ | 7-19-2014 | David Perlman

Posted on 07/19/2014 8:56:13 AM PDT by Citizen Zed

In effect, that long-sought goal would reproduce the chemical reactions inside exploding nuclear bombs to create controlled and self-sustaining thermonuclear fusion.

The NIF laser - the largest on Earth - is actually an array of 192 individual high-energy lasers that can be fired simultaneously and aimed with unparalleled precision to become a single laser hitting the central target.

In the diamond experiments -an effort unrelated to nuclear weapons research - the scientists focused 176 of the laser beams simultaneously at a diamond contained inside a tiny gold cylinder called a hohlraum. In the hohlraum, the immensely bright laser light was turned into X-rays in successive pulses of 20 millionths of a second.

The report on the experiment's success was published Thursday in the journal Nature by a team of 12 Livermore scientists headed by physicists Raymond F. Smith and Gilbert Collins. The team also included Raymond Jeanloz of UC Berkeley and Thomas S. Duffy of Princeton.

(Excerpt) Read more at m.sfgate.com ...


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1 posted on 07/19/2014 8:56:14 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
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To: Citizen Zed

Awesome, they now can produce x-rays. No telling what they can do with this. They could probably even look fractured bones inside the body.


2 posted on 07/19/2014 9:54:25 AM PDT by DannyTN (I)
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To: Citizen Zed

Planet’s cores? Try star’s cores.


3 posted on 07/19/2014 9:55:04 AM PDT by CtBigPat (Free Republic - The grown-ups table of the internet.)
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To: CtBigPat

I was just thinking - a triumph of modern urinalism - they can’t distinguish between planets and stars.


4 posted on 07/19/2014 11:01:38 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Citizen Zed

I’m not getting the point of this story.

If you’re going to get fusion to produce energy — you have to imitate the conditions inside of stars — not planets.


5 posted on 07/19/2014 1:45:13 PM PDT by ckilmer (q)
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