Physicists are planning to build lasers so powerful they could rip apart empty space
@JWilliams that’s a bit scary. Btw, just where is space empty?
@Groovyeli The "empty space" in this story refers to a vacuum. Normally, pairs of "virtual particles" pop in and out of existence even in an area completely evacuated of atoms.
However, near the borders of black holes, and in situations with sufficient power applied (e.g. hyper-intense lasers focused on a small area) the particles can be separated before they annihilate each other.
@JWilliams I know there’s been a lot of advancements in lasers, specifically what kind is a “hyper-intense) (morbid curiosity)
@Groovyeli It's not an official term. In this case, the lasers are extremely short pulses of energy, focused on a very small area--on the order of 100 petawatts (1 with 17 zeros after it) focused into an area a little smaller than a red blood cell.
@JWilliams (ha, I hope I didn’t sound like an ass here, lol)
@JWilliams my ex is a laser physicist (insane amount of degrees from applied physics to optics & chem) & between that & Sat Morning physics at U of M received a rudimentary understanding of different gases, etc. somIbwas curious, literally what type lol. My math inability has not enabled me to move beyond reading Feynman & “oh that’s so cool”