La National Ignition Facility (más info en Wikipedia) de California está tratando de crear una estrella en miniatura en la Tierra. El 29 de septiembre pasado realizaron su primer experimento de ignición integrada.

The National Ignition Facility - The Big Picture - Boston.com.jpg

Creating a miniature star on Earth» is the goal of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), home to the world’s largest and highest-energy laser in Livermore, California. On September 29th, 2010, the NIF completed its first integrated ignition experiment, where it focused its 192 lasers on a small cylinder housing a tiny frozen capsule containing hydrogen fuel, briefly bombarding it with 1 megajoule of laser energy. The experiment was the latest in a series of tests leading to a hoped-for «ignition», where the nuclei of the atoms of the fuel inside the target capsule are made to fuse together releasing tremendous energy – potentially more energy than was put in to start the initial reaction, becoming a valuable power source. The NIF has cost over $3.5 billion since 1997 and is a part of the federally funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Scientists at NIF say they hope to achieve fusion by 2012

No se pierdan la impresionante galería de fotos. Vía Kottke.

  • Comparte este artículo:

Loading...

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

One reply on “Creando una estrella en miniatura en la Tierra”