Giant lasers help re-create supernovas’ explosive, mysterious physics

Pocket-sized blasts in the lab reveal details of massive stellar explosions

close up of lasers pointed at a target

Researchers are re-creating the physics of cosmic explosions using the world’s most energetic lasers, such as the one at OMEGA (shown) at the University of Rochester in New York.

Eugene Kowaluk/Univ. of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics

When one of Hye-Sook Park’s experiments goes well, everyone nearby knows.