ESA approved the creation and launch of a space laser interferometer antenna
The European Space Agency (ESA) has approved the creation and launch of a gravitational wave observatory, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), into heliocentric orbit. About it reported in a press release on Phys.org.
According to the project, LISA is a group of three spacecraft forming a triangle and connected by laser beams – arms – several million kilometers long. Instruments on board the vehicles will monitor changes in the length of laser beams due to the passage of gravitational waves. Taken together, the changes in the lengths of all three arms will give scientists information about the source of the gravitational waves and from which direction they came.
To minimize external effects on the vehicles, each probe is designed so that the payload is affected only by gravity, and not by factors such as solar wind, light pressure or residual atmospheric drag. The cube-shaped test masses of gold and platinum that mark the ends of the arms will float freely inside the spacecraft, while the body will absorb external influences. The engines will compensate for this effect, preventing the masses from experiencing anything other than gravitational waves.
LISA should detect gravitational waves from the merger of supermassive black holes in distant galaxies, as well as the merger of white dwarfs and neutron stars in the Milky Way. In addition, the gravitational echo of the Big Bang itself, as well as the ongoing expansion of the Universe, can be detected.
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