  Laboratory experiments sensitive to the equation of state of neutron rich
matter in the vicinity of nuclear saturation density provide the first rung in
a "density ladder" that connects terrestrial experiments to astronomical
observations. In this context, the neutron skin thickness of 208Pb (Rskin)
provides a stringent laboratory constraint on the density dependence of the
symmetry energy. In turn, an improved value of Rskin has been reported recently
by the PREX collaboration. Exploiting the strong correlation between Rskin and
the slope of the symmetry energy L within a specific class of relativistic
energy density functionals, we report a value of L=(106 +/- 37)MeV -- that
systematically overestimates current limits based on both theoretical
approaches and experimental measurements. The impact of such a stiff symmetry
energy on some critical neutron-star observables is also examined.
