• Question: is there such a thing as a laser as hot as the sun

    Asked by oliviacarne to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 3 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Sort of. You can get lasers that focus all of their energy to a tiny spot – and this spot can be hotter than the sun.

    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Yeah. If you look up the National Ignition Faciltiy on google (or the NOVA laser on the homepage of the laser zone here), you can see pictures of these lasers. They’re gigantic!

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