After using the laser to concentrate light into a microscopic region of space, there is a moment of anticipation.

The pulse of light needed is the equivalent of the sun’s output for 1/10th of a second. That’s billions of times more powerful than anything we’re capable of today. But it’s not, by any means, impossible. The anticipation comes from the great coupling seen in sunlight — the yellow or rosy tendrils illuminate the Earth, but they also provide a pervasive heat all at once. In concentrating the light to create a kugelblitz, we would also be heating that area of space to a temperature beyond even that of the universe a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. It would exceed the Plank temperature of 1.417× 10³² kelvin. We can’t be sure what would happen at such an extreme condition. The laws of physics as we know them may or may not hold, meaning then that our sought-after black hole may or may not form.

If we are successful then the black hole will live for the next five years, giving off a constant and beautiful supply of Hawking radiation that will fuel our starships of the future. Despite being smaller than an atom, the black hole would weigh more than 700,000 tons and would give off hundreds of petawatts worth of energy over its short lifetime.