After holding onto the record for possessing the world’s most powerful centrifuge (or hypergravity machine) for close to three decades, the U.S. ceded that title to China in 2025. When China’s new hypergravity machine — the CHIEF1300 — came online in September 2025, it yanked the title from the centrifuge installed in the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Centrifuge Research Complex (CRC) located at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The CHIEF1300’s (CHIEF is short for Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility) reign at the top, however, would only last a few months. In December 2025, China commissioned another even more powerful centrifuge, the CHIEF1900, which is currently the world’s most powerful centrifuge.

Hypergravity centrifuges are machines designed to produce gravitational forces thousands of times stronger than that of the Earth. They do this by rotating at extremely high speeds and, in the process, creating artificial gravity. These machines have been used by agencies like NASA and ESA for various research purposes, ranging from earthquake simulations, dam failures, and the impact of a high gravity environment on living things. In contrast to hypergravity centrifuges, there are also machines that simulate gravity lower than Earth’s.

As for the claim that these machines compress space and time, it doesn’t actually work the way you may have imagined. One of the purposes of these machines is to test small models of huge structures like dams or foundations. Under high gravity, these tiny models feel the same forces a real-world structure would feel, so a small setup behaves like something much larger. Higher gravity also makes slow processes like soil settling or water flow accelerate, so years of real-world behavior can be observed in days or weeks. This is how hypergravity machines can “compress” space and time.

How powerful is the CHIEF1900 centrifuge, and where is it located?




A Russian era centrifuge used to train Soviet cosmonauts

Sven Creutzmann/mambo Photo/Getty Images

The capacity of large centrifuges is measured using a unit called g·tonnes (gravity-tonnes). A centrifuge that most people use in their daily lives is a typical washing machine, which, during its fastest spin cycle, generates close to 2 g.tonnes of effective force. The long-time record-holding U.S. centrifuge at Vicksburg was rated at 1,200 g·tonnes — already hundreds of times more powerful than anything encountered in everyday life. China’s CHIEF1300 pushed that to 1,300 g.tonnes. The current record holder — the CHIEF1900 — takes it much further, and if not evident already, it is rated to generate up to 1,900 g.tonnes of force.

Both of China’s record-breaking hypergravity centrifuges are located at the CHIEF facility, which is part of the Zhejiang University campus in Hangzhou and has been under construction since 2019. The facility is located 49 feet below ground — a move aimed at minimizing vibrations that could be generated while operating these centrifuges.

While the CHIEF1900 has just been installed, its predecessor — the CHIEF1300 — has already been used for several experiments. Notable among these is a study that measured the amount of seismic energy a hydropower-focused dam foundation can withstand. Another group of scientists used it to study the effect of large waves on the seabed. These included looking at the impact of 13-foot high wind-driven waves and a massive 65-foot tsunami on the seabed. The aim of this study was to ascertain if the chosen site is a good candidate to install an offshore wind farm. The CHIEF1300 was also able to reproduce the extreme pressure experienced at depths of around 2000 meters (6500 feet) in the ocean.