The World’s Most Powerful X-Ray Is Now Colder Than Space

You might have gotten an X-ray at the dentist’s or after a broken bone before—but that was child’s play compared to what they have at Menlo Park, California.

Nestled underground beneath Stanford University is the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), a powerful X-ray laser managed by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Since 2009, the particle accelerator has given scientists an unprecedented look at the molecular and atomic structure of matter by shooting electrons through a copper pipe and generating 120 X-ray pulses per second. It’s often considered the world’s most powerful X-ray as a result—and it’s about to get even more powerful.

SLAC is in the final stages of the LCLS-II upgrade project. Once finished, the accelerator will be able to generate a million X-ray pulses per second. To do so, though, the machine needs to be capable of superconducting—a term that describes the disappearance of electrical resistance—allowing the electrons to move even faster. The only way to achieve this is by making things very, very cold. That’s why the team installed a series of supercooling modules to a half-mile stretch of the accelerator, successfully bringing temperatures down to nearly absolute zero on April 15.

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