Shoot lasers to understand the center of the earth

The laser will focus on the small target as above - Photo: NIF

The secrets covering the earth's core are about to come to light thanks to the help of the strongest laser ever.

Different from what happens in the science fiction novel Jules Verne's underground journey, the scientific world constantly encounters many obstacles in approaching the core of the earth. As a result, after several centuries of research, humans are still very vague about what is happening inside the deep earth and there is absolutely no concept of the core of other solar system planets. After many efforts, some of the most talented scientists have drawn some characteristics, such as the core temperature of up to 7,000 degrees Celsius, the pressure at the core is 3.5 million times higher than the surface. .

The National Ignition Facility in Livemore in California (USA) is preparing to carry out a historical experiment, which can help people 'see' depths that have never been touched without having to dig through the underground tunnel. . With the experiment costing about $ 1.8 billion, US scientists will fire the strongest laser ever to a point smaller than the pin to recreate what's happening at the center of the planets. and even in the planet's planets.

The ultimate goal of the Livermore scientific team is to cause a nuclear fusion reaction that provides energy to the sun, to create power stations that provide nearly endless green fuel for children. people. However, before reaching this goal, the researchers will use extremely powerful lasers, concentrating 1,000 times as much energy as the US electricity output, in a billionth of a second to create a higher pressure. 25 million times the pressure in the seabed.

The experiment will be carried out inside the facility three times larger than the football field, in which 500,000 billion watts of laser will move through nearly 1.6 km of lenses, lenses and sound amplifiers. bar. Then, from the first ray, the laser will be split into 192 different rays, all focusing on the middle part of the 10-meter reactor covered with aluminum and concrete. And reactions to regenerate each type of planet, or separate planetary core, will occur.

Scientists hope the experiment will help decipher many questions around the center of the earth. Recent studies using seismic methods suggest that the Earth's core is a single giant crystal whose temperature exceeds the surface of the sun (over 6,000 degrees Celsius). Although the melting point of the metal is 1,535 degrees Celsius, the extreme pressure at the center of the earth helps this core to remain solid.