Laboratory Astrophysics New Approach to the Physics of Astrophysics Laboratory Astrophysics New Approach to the Physics of Astrophysics

Laboratory astrophysics is a new field to study a variety of plasma astrophys-ics phenomena in laboratory with use of intense and large-scale lasers originally developed for researching laser fusion. La-ser fusion is to realize a miniature Sun in laboratory; that means it can be also used for study of stellar dynamics and many of plasma phenomena in the Universe. From the first proposal of the new research field, it has passed almost 15 years and it now attracts many laser plasma experimental-ists to challenge a variety of topics. The author would like to review what the role of laboratory astrophysics is and a part of recent experimental activities in Japan. 1