SCΛRECROW
Shane M. joined
Specialist Technician. PC Gamer. Stargate and Star Wars Fan. Computer Geek. Military Enthusiast. Science Enthusiast (Nut). Mountain Biker. Photographer. Cinematographer. Audiophile. SketchUp Modeller. Video Editor. Audio Editor. (No, my name isn't really Shane M. Schofield...it's an inside joke.)
No, it's not a giant pencil. It's the target mount for the National Ignition Facility's 450,000kg, 10m wide laser target chamber. Basically, they are going to use 192 lasers to heat up a small Hydrogen target to about 100 million degrees to try to start a fusion reaction.
The combined power output of the 192 lasers is about 500 Terawatts, but only for a few picoseconds (trillionths of a second) at a time. The highest energy level so far is 1.952 MJ. This makes it the most powerful laser in the world, for now.
Just for fun, I'm going to make a ridiculous comparison between this nd the world's most powerful handheld laser.
Wicked Lasers' Spyder II GX has an output power of 200-300mW.
Costs about $1,700 though...compared to $4.2 billion for the NIF's laser, it's a bargain. Wickedlasers.com
Today fusion, tomorrow a Death Star. (Don't tell me about all of the physics problems. I'm trying to make a joke here.)
dumb question... is this freaking thing real?
Yes it is.
i want to mount it on a shark.
For what purpose?
having a shark that has a mounted lazor.
Do you know how big the laser is?
well, we would have to mount it on a whale instead.
LOL, maybe, besides the water would attenuate the laser beam...
tomorrow's Particle Cannon in the making?
Cncden.com
Hmm, looks quite similar....run!!!
Imagine the size of that thing's sharpener.... xD
Imagine how many trees they would have used.
You mean forests!
Yes! Forests...