Gekko2026

A team of UK physicists will fire powerful laser pulses at a gas target in Japan to recreate the conditions inside certain types of stars. The researchers have won competitive access to the Gekko XII laser facility in Japan for experiments scheduled in February 2026. They will create photo-ionised plasmas—superheated, electrically charged gases where atoms are stripped of electrons by intense X-ray radiation. Such plasmas are common in astrophysical objects like accretion disks around black holes and the atmospheres of white dwarf stars, but they are extremely difficult to study in the laboratory because they are hard to sustain in a steady state. This experiment introduces a new step: pre-ionising the plasma before probing it with L-shell radiation. This should create a more stable, steady-state plasma that better mimics the conditions in real astrophysical environments. The work builds on previous experiments at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK, in Shanghai, and at the Omega-EP facility in the US. This is fundamental science. It will not produce an immediate practical application. However, understanding how matter behaves under extreme radiation fields is essential for interpreting astronomical observations and for testing the computer models used to simulate stars and galaxies.