A European Space Agency effort to try to detect gravitational waves in space is not only technically feasible but compelling, a new report finds.
A panel of experts was asked to perform a “sanity check” on the endeavour, which is likely to cost well in excess of one billion euros, BBC reported.
The Gravitational Observatory Advisory Team says it sees no showstoppers.
It even suggests Esa try to accelerate the project from its current proposed launch date in 2034 to 2029.
Whether that is possible is largely a question of funding. Space missions launch on a schedule that is determined by a programme’s budget.
“But after submitting our report, Esa came back to us and asked what we thought might be technically possible, putting aside the money,” explained panel chairman, Dr Michael Perryman.
“We are in the process of finalising a note on that, which will suggest the third quarter of 2029. So, 13 years from now,” he said.
The agency has stated its intention to build a mission that investigates the “gravitational Universe”, and is set to issue a call to the scientific community to submit a detailed proposal.
Gravitational waves – ripples in space-time – have become the big topic of conversation since their first detection last year by the ground-based Advanced Ligo facilities in the US.
Using a technique known as laser interferometry, the labs sensed the fantastically small disturbance at Earth generated by the merger of two black holes more than a billion light-years away.
The discovery opens up a completely new way to do astronomy, allowing scientists to probe previously impenetrable regions of the cosmos and to test some of the fundamental ideas behind general relativity – Einstein’s theory of gravity.
The Goat says the stunning detection by Ligo is a game-changer: “In a single step, gravitational wave astronomy has been placed on a secure observational footing, opening the panorama to the next robust steps in a space-based gravitational wave observatory.”
That was not the case when the panel started its work. Then, there were many people who thought a detection might be beyond our measurement capability.
