The probe will be placed on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, which is due to will blast off from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana atop a Vega rocket. These ripples in the fabric of spacetime are predicted to be caused by massive, fast moving objects like black holes.
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The rocket is created to deliver the 1,900 kg (4,200-pound) satellite into an orbit 1.5 million km (930,000 miles ) from Earth.
The scheduling of this launch is also quite particular, as December 2 happens to be the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
The ripples, known as gravitational waves, are caused by massive celestial bodies warping space, similar to a bowling ball rolling across a trampoline.
“ESA’s LISA Pathfinder spacecraft is in stable and safe conditions and the launcher teams are now working on this technical issue”, ESA said. Inside, a laser interferometer will hunt for evidence of gravitational waves between the two freefalling masses.
ESA said in a statement the check had “provided satisfactory results”.
Once launched, scientists say the satellite could revolutionize research into gravitational waves.
Gravitational waves are out there, but so far their detection has remained tantalizingly out of reach.
If the distance between the cubes changes without other gravitational force, then scientists should be able to detect it and know whether a ripple in space-time changed the distance between the two objects.
In order for a gravitational wave detector to work, it must be able to separate the cosmic waves from the multitude of disturbances in the solar system, according to Euronews.
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LISA Pathfinder may not be the mission to find them, however. “Only in space can the subtle effects of the low-frequency gravitational waves be detected with exquisitely precise instruments”.
