Astronomers scan skies for gravitational waves using new tech
New York (PTI): Using modern tools to look at the universe has often led to discoveries that changed the course of science... history is fully of examples.
And, now astronomers are scanning the skies, searching for one of Einstein's greatest predictions -- gravitational waves -- using two state-of-the-art detectors at the Laser Interferometre Gravitational-wave Observatory in the US.
"Galileo was the first person to use the telescope to view the cosmos. His observations with the new technology led to the discovery of moons orbiting Jupiter and lent support to heliocentric model of the solar system," the 'ScienceDaily' reported, quoting lead researcher Prof Patrick Brady.
In fact, Prof Brady and his team at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Centre for Gravitation and Cosmology are using the facilities at LIGO to trace the gravitational waves -- a feat that would change what we know about the cosmos.
The waves, produced when massive objects in space move violently, carry the imprint of the events that cause them. Scientists already have indirect evidence that they exist, but have not directly detected them.
Sci. & Tech.
