The POLAR project reached an essential milestone in 2016 by demonstrating for the first time the possibility of reproducing in the laboratory an accretion structure (accretion shock and radiative zone) in agreement with numerical predictions and astrophysical observations[10][11][12] This result opens the way to the use of very energetic lasers, such as the NIF (National Ignition Facility-USA) or the LMJ (Laser Megajoule-France), to achieve radiative regimes strictly homothetic to the astrophysical situation.

[13] Ultimately, these experiments should make it possible to reliably produce miniature models in the laboratory that are almost analogous to real astrophysical conditions.

The authors show how this basic hypothesis evolved in several stages to arrive at the current model known as LCDM (Lamba-Cold-Dark-Matter) in which 95% of the content of the universe remains unknown.

[18][19] Bonnet-Bidaud is the author of the first scientific study of the oldest known stellar map, the Dunhuang Star Chart, also known as the S.3326 manuscript, a document found in China along the Silk road and now kept at the British Library in London, England.

The study concludes to a now revised datation at +650-685, making the chart contemporary of the early Tang dynasty and most probably produced by the famous Chinese astronomer Li Chunfeng.