With unknown aspirations, perhaps for mining in peace; perhaps for the pursuit of that vital pleasure found in muttering the phrase “scientific progress;” or perhaps, for interplanetary demolition and genocide, Japan has just successfully tested the most powerful laser in the known galaxy. The Laser is a 2-petawatt pulse of light. That’s 2 x 10^15, or the number two with fifteen zeroes behind it, for any reading-rusty engineers. The Laser works by concentrating an immense amount of power through an extremely thin line for one picosecond (a trillionth of a second), but this is more than enough time to demonstrate the laser’s superior firepower potential.
WHO DESIGNED THIS DOOMSDAY WEAPON?
This particular laser was conceived and designed at Osaka University by Japanese researchers. It is three hundred feet long and is known colloquially as the LFEX, or Laser for Fast Ignition Experiments.
In the US, the most powerful laser yet constructed is a one-petawatt laser, developed at the University of Texas, in Austin. However, the Japanese LFEX version is capable of generating 100 times the amount of energy than the one tested in Austin. But the fact that the Japanese have beaten us is not the concern here, no, the concern is how little energy was required for this massive burst of energy.
LFEX LASER IS EFFICIENT
Since the actual duration of time the laser existed was so short, the LFEX only required the amount of energy a microwave requires in two short seconds’ span. Imagine a new kind of magnum.
In order for the LFEX to convert and generate so much power in such a short amount of time, it uses a series of glass lamps which amplify the pulse as it passes through, one after another, getting stronger and stronger with each pass, and all of this lasts so short a time that one just needs to marvel.
LASER SPECS & OTHER MISCELLANY
Osaka scientists have said that the power emitted by this laser is the equivalent of 1,000 times the world’s total electricity consumption. One scientist named Junji Kawanaka (associate professor of electrical engineering), said that the team is still in the process of completing a 2-petawatt laser, and that the team is also slated to build a 10-petawatt laser in the near future. To imagine the devastation, keep in mind that lasers of a mere 50,000 watts can annihilate a drone from one mile’s distance.
