The National Ignition Facility, home to the world’s largest laser, pulled the trigger on 192 beams of optically amplified, electromagnetic radiation-emitting light – all fired within a few trillionths of a second of each other, to deliver 500 trillion watts of “peak power” and 1.85 megajoules of ultraviolet laser light. This amount of power is greater than what the entire U.S. generates at any instant in time and brings scientists closer to understanding fusion reactions.
The laser is housed in a building three times the size of a football field with the goal of helping the NIF understand fusion ignition in order to create sustainable clean energy from it. The laser recreates in the laboratory what has previously only occurred in deep stellar interiors as stars are born and most importantly emits more energy than it consumes.
