Making a star

When the world's most powerful laser facility flicks, the switch on its first full-scale experiments later this month, a tiny star will be born on Earth.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California aims to demonstrate the feasibility to do nuclear fusion, the reaction at the heart of the Sun and a potentially abundant, clean energy source for the planet.

But whilst many eyes at the facility will be locked on the goal of satisfying humanity's energy demands, many scientists hope to answer other fundamental questions to mankind better improve.

First and foremost, NIF has been built for national security purposes, to study the conditions that exist in nuclear explosions and the way that nuclear weapons perform which are very dangerous.

Then, they can study the physics of fusion - can you make a fusion power plant here on our planet? And we can do basic physics and planetary science.

When this is done we will be able to understand the secreat of the universe and the future will be near if they are able to make their own star.