GPS News  
Most Powerful Laser In The World Fires Up

Such a powerful laser will also allow study of advanced ideas for creating energy by controlled fusion.
by Staff Writers
Austin TX (SPX) Apr 09, 2008
The Texas Petawatt laser reached greater than one petawatt of laser power on Monday morning, March 31, making it the highest powered laser in the world, Todd Ditmire, a physicist at The University of Texas at Austin, said. The Texas Petawatt is the only operating petawatt laser in the United States.

Ditmire says that when the laser is turned on, it has the power output of more than 2,000 times the output of all power plants in the United States. (A petawatt is one quadrillion watts.) The laser is brighter than sunlight on the surface of the sun, but it only lasts for an instant, a 10th of a trillionth of a second (0.0000000000001 second).

Ditmire and his colleagues at the Texas Center for High-Intensity Laser Science will use the laser 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.

This will allow them to explore many astronomical phenomena in miniature. They will create mini-supernovas, tabletop stars and very high-density plasmas that mimic exotic stellar objects known as brown dwarfs.

"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," said Ditmire, director of the center.

Such a powerful laser will also allow them to study advanced ideas for creating energy by controlled fusion.

Related Links
University of Texas at Austin
Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Cleaning Up The Atmosphere With Cow Manure
Mount Joy PA (SPX) Apr 09, 2008
High quality carbon offsets provider NativeEnergy is proud to announce the Brubaker Farms' family dairy farm methane project, a new anaerobic digester/generator system built in reliance on carbon offset funding provided by NativeEnergy and grants from the State of Pennsylvania and U.S. Department of Agriculture.







  • World grapples with aviation's climate change footprint
  • Europe's EADS finds sweet home in Alabama despite uproar
  • A380 superjumbo makes European debut in London
  • Aviation industry must act fast on climate change: Airbus chief

  • New York nixes traffic congestion charge
  • 2007 Alternative Fuel Autos Sales Up By 15 Percent
  • Thailand approves 688 mln dlrs in eco-car investments
  • Sandia's Fleet Services Department Exceeds DOE Fuel And Energy Efficiency Standards

  • General Dynamics Awarded Army Contract For WIN-T Satellite Communications Terminals
  • Advanced Mobile Satellite Communications Network Being Rolled Out For Florida National Guard
  • Lockheed Martin Team Awarded AMF JTRS Contract
  • Lockheed Martin Team Achieves Major Milestone On US Navy's Mobile User Objective System

  • Russia sees US missile shield as inevitable: report
  • Bush Scores Victory In BMD Plans For Europe Part Two
  • Missile defence at heart of Bush-Putin swansong on Black Sea
  • Israel seeks to reassure neighbours over missile drill

  • African inflation could cause 'humanitarian tsunami': Brussels
  • China can meet domestic grain demand: premier Wen
  • Australian minister defends kangaroo culls
  • Specially-Designed Soils Could Help Combat Climate Change

  • Big Tokyo quake would cause human gridlock: study
  • Disasters In Small Communities: Researchers Discuss How To Help
  • Raytheon Develops Advanced Concrete Breaking Technology For Urban Search And Rescue
  • Floods, cyclones, devastate southern Africa: UN

  • Chemists work on bamboo fabric development
  • Saab Signs GIRAFFE AMB Multi Mission Radar Contract
  • TDRS-1 Satellite Reaches 25 Years Of Age
  • The Endless Dawn Of The Ion Age

  • European Space Freighter cleared to dock with ISS: ESA
  • Toshiba robot can do the job of the remote control
  • Jules Verne Set For Next Step On Road To Automated Station Docking
  • High-Schoolers Go Into Overdrive At FIRST Robotics Competition

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement