Studying the stars on earth: astrophysics on intense lasers

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, is now performing significant astrophysics experiments on its huge Nova laser facility, and a similar effort has started at the Gekko laser facility at Osaka University in Japan. Our experiments on the Nova and Gekko lasers so far encourage us that our astrophysics work is already leading to a better understanding of the hydrodynamics of supernovae and astrophysical jets. The ability of large inertial confinement fusion lasers to recreate star-like conditions in the laboratory greatly improves our understanding of the heavens; for the first time in our history, we can study the stars up close on Earth