The ambitious new device is designed to detect gravitational waves – an elusive phenomena created by some of the most violent events in the universe such as black holes, neutron stars and the Big Bang. Although they have never been directly detected, these waves of gravity are thought to echo through the universe like ripples from a stone thrown into a pond and they could provide scientists with a new way of mapping the sky. The telescope, which is likely to cost between £500 million and £1 billion to build, will be built inside a network of tunnels 12 miles long and buried up to half a mile underground to dampen any interference from vibrations on the surface. The project is expected to rival the Large Hadron Collider, the 17 mile particle smasher on the French Swiss Border that was switched on in 2008, in its scale and ambition. Physicists claim the telescope will give them the first chance to see a black hole, which until now have only been detected indirectly because of the stars and debris orbiting them, and see into the centre of powerful stars known as neutron stars.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 10:56:03 +0000
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