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 …

[ArrZarr]

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.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Omega Laser

Oh Mega Laser. A frikking big laser

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Can't have giant frikkin' lasers without sharks.

[Mark 85]

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

[onefang]

"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.

[John Smith 19]

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

[Fruit and Nutcase]

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

[WeeHeavy]

Oh, my!

not as massive as Uranus

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

[Chris G]

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.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Oh, my!

Here, use this one - it belongs to Kim Kardashian

[Francis Boyle]

I'm not sure

this will be much help to Slartibartfast but impressive nonetheless.

[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.