Igniting a Star with Lasers

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility in Livermore California are using this large cluster of machinery above to potentially create a baby star right in their laboratory. This extremely complex machine uses nearly two hundred individual lasers and a group of amplifiers and filters roughly four hundred feet long in order to create a fusion reaction similar to the one found in the sun, but on a scale much smaller. This reaction would be self-sustaining and provide valuable insight and reasearch regarding fusion as a source of energy.

What 'self-sustaining' means in this case is that the scientists conducting the experiment expect or at least hope that the overall reaction will release more net energy than the lasers put into the into it, providing a potentially revolutionizing source of energy for the world.

The beams initially begin in a different location as infrared light, fairly weak, but then pass through a series of mirrors and amplifiers to grow in strength and provide the energy necessary to collide and create fusion. The beams will then focus on a target, roughly the size of a BB and filled with hydrogen fuel, causing a controlled thermonuclear reaction. The National Ignition Facility plans to conduct this test sometime in 2010, so after this time we may expect to see considerable new options with regard to energy production in the future.

Nicholas Skvir, group C

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2009/05/gallery_nif