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back to article Want to make a super-earth? Bring on the frikking lasers

A team of physicists have attempted to recreate the internal conditions of a ‘super-Earth’ planet in a lab, by shooting laser beams at iron samples. Super-Earths are a type of exoplanet. They have a higher mass than Earth, but are not as massive as Uranus and Neptune. The giants are about 15 and 17 times the mass of Earth. A …

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  1. ArrZarr Silver badge
    Pint

    Whoever got the official name of the testing system to be called the Omega Laser is owed a beer. I tried to concentrate on the rest of the article, I really did, but all that was going through my mind was an amalgamation of Dr Evil and Ming the Merciless laughing maniacally.

    18 0 Reply
    1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Omega Laser

      Oh Mega Laser. A frikking big laser

      2 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All well and good, but where do the sharks fit into the picture?

    Can't have giant frikkin' lasers without sharks.

    12 0 Reply
    1. Mark 85
      Reply Icon

      They probably don't. For that laser, we'd need a really huge shark and a bigger boat.

      2 0 Reply
    2. onefang
      Reply Icon

      "All well and good, but where do the sharks fit into the picture?"

      The sharks fit in to the picture as very quickly cooked fish fingers.

      2 0 Reply
  3. John Smith 19 Gold badge

    Impressive.

    I always thought the way to go with this stuff is something called a Diamond Anvil Cell.

    Where inside pressure are measure in 1000s of bar

    2 1 Reply
    1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Impressive.

      @John Smith 19 - "Diamond Anvil Cell"

      @WeeHeavy - "Uranus"

      Take a couple terms from your comments, add in "Boffins" and you get...

      Boffins prove oil and water CAN mix – if you do it in a gas giant

      1 0 Reply
  4. WeeHeavy
    Pint

    Oh, my!

    not as massive as Uranus

    I couldn't help myself... It's Friday!

    6 1 Reply
    1. Chris G
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      Re: Oh, my!

      Investigating The Mass of Uranus by Professor Hugh Jarss.

      It's Friday, I just had a beer, can't find my coat.

      3 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh, my!

        Here, use this one - it belongs to Kim Kardashian

        1 1 Reply
  5. Francis Boyle Silver badge

    I'm not sure

    this will be much help to Slartibartfast but impressive nonetheless.

    1 0 Reply
  6. cray74

    Are the crystal structures achieved in tiny fractions of a second necessarily representative of what you'd find in the core of a planet? Crystal structures often change over time as they settle into their favored, minimal energy form. Look at 7000-series aluminum alloys and how they can alter their properties at room temperature unless you overage them.

    1 0 Reply

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