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Hell Yeah, We’re Getting a Space-Based Gravitational Wave Observatory
Stay calm, everybody stay calm. But it’s finally happening: The European Space Agency is committing itself to the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), a gravitational wave observatory that will study some of the universe’s most enigmatic phenomena. On Thursday, LISA was formally adopted, meaning that ESA “recognises that the mission concept and technology are sufficiently…
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Behold, Our Galaxy Visualised in Gravitational Waves
No space-based gravitational wave observatory exists…yet. But that hasn’t stopped a team of astronomers from demonstrating how the gravitational universe might look, using simulated data to create a “synthetic gravitational sky.” Gravitational waves are perturbations in spacetime that were predicted by Einstein in his theory of general relativity; as Einstein described them, the waves are…
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Cosmic ‘Lighthouses’ That Beam Gamma Rays Could Reveal Gravitational Waves All Around Us
A team of astronomers have compiled 12.5 years of data from the Fermi Gammy-ray Space Telescope to form a gamma-ray pulsar timing array, a system of cosmic lighthouses that could help reveal ripples in spacetime.
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Mirrors That Detect Ripples in Space-Time Were Frozen to Near Absolute Zero
A team of physicists say they’ve managed to nearly freeze the motion of atoms across four suspended mirrors. It’s a mind-twisting feat that strains the very definitions of seemingly simple words like “object” and “temperature.” So buckle up.