World's largest and most powerful X-ray laser unveiled in Hamburg

The world’s most powerful X-ray laser called the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) was officially inaugurated in Hamburg, northern city of Germany on Friday.

The 3.4km-long European XFEL will act as a high-speed camera that can capture images of individual atoms in a few millionths of a billionth of a second.

The facility that is housed in a series of tunnels up to 38 metres underground will generate up to 27,000 pulses per second which is 200 times more than other X-ray lasers.

It will allow scientists to map atomic details of viruses, create films of chemical reactions, and study the processes deep within stars and planets.

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"The laser is the biggest, and the most powerful, source of X-rays ever made", said Olivier Napoly, a member of the French Atomic Energy Commission who helped build the complex.

The facility will provide qauntam leap in arenas of medicine, biology, chemistry, energy and information technology, according to its official website.