Generating pressures at the cores of giant planets

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A laser vaporizes a diamond cell inducing a shock wave that produces pressures over 10 million times atmospheric pressure greater than the pressure at Earths core. The experiment was conducted at the Omega laser facility operated by the University of ...
A laser vaporizes a diamond cell, inducing a shock wave that produces pressures over 10 million times atmospheric pressure, greater than the pressure at Earth's core. The experiment was conducted at the Omega laser facility operated by the University of Rochester in New York. Credit: Raymond Jeanloz/UC Berkeley

Combining diamond anvils and powerful lasers, laboratory researchers have developed a technique that should be able to squeeze materials to pressures 100 to 1,000 times greater than possible today, reproducing conditions expected in the cores of supergiant planets. Until now, these pressures have only been available experimentally next to underground nuclear explosions.


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