# creating supernovas in a lab?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creating-supernovas-in-a-lab/79819
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 5, 2001, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creating-supernovas-in-a-lab/79819 "2001-09-05T05:36:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Eva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2001, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creating-supernovas-in-a-lab/79819/1 "2001-09-05T05:36:37Z")
This is a question coming from a very simple mind, so please bear with me if you can. I’ve heard that scientists have found a way to mimic the deportment of a supernova in a superadvanced laboratory setting, and in doing so, have found a possible method for the creation of energy due to the nuclear fission of the atoms. If this were to be true, wouldn’t we be left with a so-called “black hole”, and what do you all think that we could possibly make of this new technology? In my mind, the possibilities are endless…
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### Author:  [@Slip\_Mahoney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slip_Mahoney)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2001, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creating-supernovas-in-a-lab/79819/2 "2001-09-05T06:13:48Z")
We already generate tons of energy via nuclear fission. Been doing it for years. That’s how nuclear power reactors work.
Nuclear _fusion_, on the other hand is still out of our grasp, and may always be.
Table top cold fusion mumjo-jumbo nonwithstanding.
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### Author:  [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2001, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creating-supernovas-in-a-lab/79819/3 "2001-09-05T06:23:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Slip Mahoney \*
> Nuclear _fusion_, on the other hand is still out of our grasp, and may always be.
Controlled, sustained fusion is out of our grasp. The power of an H-bomb is from fusion.
Neither fusion nor fission necessarily results in a black hole.
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### Author:  [@Ell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ell)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2001, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creating-supernovas-in-a-lab/79819/4 "2001-09-05T07:50:19Z")
If a supernova is created the material used to create would be under the Chandrasekhar Limit. Therefore it wouldn’t be possible for the matter to be converted into a black hole.
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2001, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creating-supernovas-in-a-lab/79819/5 "2001-09-05T13:46:30Z")
Here is a [link](http://www.discover.com/june_01/featstar.html) to a story from Discover magazine.
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### Author:  [@ali0r](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ali0r)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2001, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creating-supernovas-in-a-lab/79819/6 "2001-09-05T15:08:04Z")
The lab your referring to…its name and location escape me :)…but it does exist and I do know it uses the most powerful laser in the world, fired at a _few_ uranium atoms? Which produces a similar?..to supernovae/atom bomb explosion?..But no black holes.
Please excuse my vague answer…it was about 3am and I was half conscious when I half saw this on telly. 🙂