article_snippet.sent: Space lasers are best known for blowing people - and planets - up in science fiction, and even the odd Bond movie.
article_snippet.sent: Dr Adrian Quarterman Dr Adrian Quarterman has suggested space lasers could be used to power homes in the future - but says The beams will be nowhere near as powerful as imagined in films like Star Wars (pictured)
article_snippet.sent: Dr Adrian Quarterman, of Dundee University, is working on a laser which will convert sun beams into energy, The Times reported.
article_snippet.sent: The satellites will orbit earth, covered in mirrors to help The satellites harvest the sunlight and convert The satellites into laser light.
article_snippet.sent: The satellites then creates, using semi-conductors, can be shot back down to earth.
article_snippet.sent: Tokyo rresearchers have proposed a laser system to attach to the ISS which would be used to shoot down pieces of debris in earth orbit (artist's illustration shown)
article_snippet.sent: Unlike the lasers in the movies, however, Tokyo rresearchers will not be powerful enough to blind a pigeon, let alone blow up a planet.
article_snippet.sent: And it is quite different from ideas unveiled in a paper earlier this week, which could see the International Space Station fitted with lasers to clear up 'space junk'.
article_snippet.sent: The system, suggested by researchers at the Riken research institute in Tokyo, would use a telescope already mounted on the International Space Station to find and target pieces of debris up to 62 miles (100km) away.
article_snippet.sent: Powerful pulses from the laser would then push space junk into earth’s atmosphere, where the laser would burn up.
article_snippet.sent: But the laser would also not be powerful enough to be turned into a weapon: the pieces the laser targets will be less than a centimetre in size.
highlights_snippet.sent: The beams can then be converted into laser light and sent down to earth .
  