Physicists have figured out how to crush diamonds with pressure from the biggest laser in the world, offering hints at conditions in the cores of other planets.
The experiments, which took place at Livermore's National Ignition Facility, have been documented in a study in the journal Nature.
The enormous laser was trained on synthetic diamonds, and its energy translated into a type of artificial gravity that compressed the stones and vaporized them in less than 10 billionths of a second, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
"We don't know what lies within the core of Jupiter or Saturn but now for the first time we now have the ability to study how matter exists under these extreme conditions of pressure and temperature," said lead author Ray Smith, as quoted by BBC News.
"Our experiments provide a method for recreating conditions within the cores of giant gas planets--both within our solar system and beyond," Smith said. "It has been proposed, for example, that Neptune has a diamond in its core, due to decomposition of methane which gets compacted under extreme pressure."
The largest in the world, the NIF's laser comprises 192 high-energy lasers that can be concentrated at the same time, essentially becoming one super laser to focus on the target.
"Diamond--the least compressible material known, has here been compressed to an unprecedented density--more than that of lead," the authors wrote about the experiment. "These equation-of-state data can now be compared to .... theories long used to describe matter present in the interiors of giant planets and stars."
A controversial multibillion-dollar project, the NIF is overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Researchers at the facility have been attempting unsuccessfully for years to manipulate laser beams into producing a reaction called ignition.
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