The United States signed an agreement with a new partner to expand the search for gravitational waves, ripples in interlaced fabric of space and time, and shielded movements of massive objects, such as the merging of black holes.
The existence of gravitational waves proposed by Albert Einstein 100 years ago was confirmed only in February with the help of the Laser Interferometer of the Gravitational Waves of the Observatory of the National Science Foundation (LIGO).
On Thursday, the Director of the National Science Foundation (National Science Foundation), Franca Cordova, signed an agreement to create an advanced gravity wave detector in India.
“Today is a significant day because it gives hope for a deepening of our understanding and opening of an even wider window to our Universe,” said Cordova in a statement. In combination with two LIGO observatories, a third detector in India will allow scientists to determine the source of gravitational waves, which leads to a deeper understanding of how they differ and how they propagate.
“We look forward to working closely with our Indian colleagues, and we seek to further increase our knowledge of the most energetic phenomena in space,” Cordova said.
LIGO is being upgraded to be able to detect even weak oscillations of gravitational waves. The device will resume observations at the end of this summer or early fall. Also, a new gravity wave detector in Italy may be ready for use.
In addition to the new project in India, Japan is developing a gravitational wave detector. Europe is also experiencing a technique for studying gravitational waves from an observatory in space.
