Livermore Lab has the world’s most powerful laser, the National Ignition Facility. Smith and colleagues used its 176 beams to squeeze a tiny diamond target. The team got up to 50 million atmospheres of pressure, that’s about 10 times the density of the Earth’s core.

The diamond at the center of the capsule was at the density of lead before it was vaporized by the laser energy. The results, published in Nature, prove that diamond can withstand this kind of crushing.

Because, I suppose, one can. It also bodes well for the gas giant Neptune in our own solar system which is believed to have a core partially composed of diamond under extremely high pressures.

Via NPR.