500 Trillion watt laser developed at OSU

Scientists at the ACME Ohio State University labs have reportedly developed a 500 trillion watt laser.

500,000,000,000,000 W

To put that into perspective, it’s more watts than the US national debt in US Dollars. That’s a lot. Consider that a 5mW laser can blind most people at least momentarily and that a 200mW laser will blind someone causing permanent damage to the retina.

The laser can only fire bursts of one billionth of a second, and only about a hundred times a day. Planned to be first tested on May 15th, the bursts will be shot at a pellet of deuterum-tritium ice. As the pellet is hit by the burst, it will reach 50 millions degrees Kelvin.

50,000,000°K

Our sun’s surface temperature usually fluctuates between 5500~5800° Kelvin.

Professor Richard Freeman (I’m stunned his first name is not Gordon), soon to be known as Dr.Wil-E-Coyote, said: “This is a very exciting time.” Apparently Dr.Freeman is a man who gets overly excited about things such as 500,000,000,000,000W lasers.

I hope they plan on wearing safety goggles…

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