Fifty five years after Albert Einstein's death, physicists will be testing something he described in his theory of general relativity report. Yawn. Wait, did we mention spaceships and lasers?
Three spacecraft flying 3 million miles apart will fire lasers at each other - but not the kind that blow stuff up. The experiment will be overseen by NASA and the European Space Agency.
The point is to once and for all discover if gravitational waves are actually possible. Finally, we can all sleep better at night! Gravitational waves "are produced when massive objects like black holes or collapsed stars accelerate through space, perhaps because they being pulled towards another object with greater gravitational pull like a massive black hole." That is an actual quote from a university professor. The laser beams won't harm the spacecraft, which will be carrying floating cubes of gold platinum - they'll be used to measure the changes. It's said to be the largest scientific apparatus to ever be built (and likely one of the more expensive).
It's apparently the last part of Einstein's theory of general relativity to be tested, but hasn't been possible yet due to the tricky nature of detecting them. So why bother with this? Apparently once we learn more about gravitational waves, we learn more about space and the universe around us, giving us insight into collapsed stars' matter and black holes. Some nerd somewhere will get the drift and shout out wormholes and folding space and then we're really cookin'.
Unfortunately there are a good number of years before the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (or LISA as it's cleverly known) is able to proceed, with 2020 target. Set your reminder alarm for one decade...
Three spacecraft flying 3 million miles apart will fire lasers at each other - but not the kind that blow stuff up. The experiment will be overseen by NASA and the European Space Agency.The point is to once and for all discover if gravitational waves are actually possible. Finally, we can all sleep better at night! Gravitational waves "are produced when massive objects like black holes or collapsed stars accelerate through space, perhaps because they being pulled towards another object with greater gravitational pull like a massive black hole." That is an actual quote from a university professor. The laser beams won't harm the spacecraft, which will be carrying floating cubes of gold platinum - they'll be used to measure the changes. It's said to be the largest scientific apparatus to ever be built (and likely one of the more expensive).
It's apparently the last part of Einstein's theory of general relativity to be tested, but hasn't been possible yet due to the tricky nature of detecting them. So why bother with this? Apparently once we learn more about gravitational waves, we learn more about space and the universe around us, giving us insight into collapsed stars' matter and black holes. Some nerd somewhere will get the drift and shout out wormholes and folding space and then we're really cookin'.
Unfortunately there are a good number of years before the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (or LISA as it's cleverly known) is able to proceed, with 2020 target. Set your reminder alarm for one decade...
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