Shanti, excited about the prospect of having an observatory for gravitational waves built right under his mobile home, explains the implications of it.
It’s a sunny September day when I walk out around this beautiful village called Noorbeek, my ‘second home’ here in the very south of Holland, a border region between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. And today the magic is not in the air but on the ground, because it is there where, everywhere around me, in a wide wide circle, thousands of instruments are placed at a distance of ten meters from each other. I wonder, what’s happening here?
Wonder may be one of the greatest gifts granted to human beings and wonder is what’s happening here, scientific wonder: how tranquil is this place, how stable is the ground? Is this the right location for Einstein’s Telescope, the most accurate gravitational-wave observatory ever, or is it better to place it on Sardinia in Italy, the other candidate?
On April 14, 2022, the Dutch government had decided to give an enormous boost to the chances of bringing the Einstein Telescope to South Limburg with almost a billion euros from the National Growth Fund. An international panel will decide in 2024/2025 where it is to be built.
Einstein was right! Gravitation is the sculptor of the universe and the parent of gravitational waves. Einstein’s theory of general relativity we’ve known for 100 years, now we also have the proof. On September 14, 2015, gravitational waves were observed for the first time by the twin LIGO observatories at Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington.
Until then, physicists and astronomers could only view the universe by looking at radio waves, light or radiation. Soon it will be possible to study the universe in a completely new way!
Now, the discovery of gravitational waves requires a new measurement facility that observes these waves with maximum precision: enter the Einstein Telescope.
NASA/Ames Research Center/C. Henze – Public domain
The Einstein Telescope (ET) will be an advanced observatory able to detect up to a thousand times more sources of gravitational waves than any of its predecessors. Not unlike messages in a bottle, they contain valuable clues.
For the first time researchers will be able to get information about the most extreme events in the universe and study the cosmos as never before. It will be able to study the precise structure of neutron stars, the birth of black holes and the original structure and evolution of the universe.
ET will welcome these gravitational waves into her three open arms, each 10 km long, 6.5 meters wide and stretched out in an equilateral triangle.
It will be located underground, at a depth of 200 to 300 metres, to reduce seismic noise and “gravity gradient noise” caused by nearby moving objects.
Now I understand why they have placed these thousands of sensitive instruments here (not unlike seismographs to detect volcanic activity): to see how geologically tranquil this area is.
On this sunny September day I see, right in front of me, three vibroseis trucks driving slowly in a row through the Heuvelland and Voerstreek regions near Terziet, Epen, Noorbeek and Sippenaeken. They carry out the necessary geological research. After all, the telescope requires a seismologically quiet environment to be able to take precise measurements of the gravitational waves, and also a structurally stable subsurface spread over a wider area.
Previous studies have shown that the subsurface of this Euregio seems stable enough – hard rock and a damping layer on top – but a better understanding is needed. That’s why they conduct precise subsurface measurements, research that is comparable to making an ultrasound in the hospital, where sound waves bounce around the body and behave differently in parts with different properties, such as organs, muscle layers and bones.
Every 20 metres the trucks lower a vibrating plate and so introduce artificially generated vibrations, four times during 16 seconds, into the soil. The sound waves that are created in this way are reflected in different ways. Sensors along the route measure the effects of this to accurately map the structure of the subsurface. They travel 2.5 kilometer a day.
On my walk I can hear and feel the plates vibrating. I’m vibrating myself, filled with hope that Einstein’s Telescope will be built right here under my feet, and filled with wonder which information might come out of it’s arms about the origin and the evolution of the universe.
I look forward to join Einstein’s Telescope here in registering the vibes of ‘the sculptor of the cosmos’ by being as silent and quiet as I can manage!
Sources consulted
- www.einsteintelescope.nl
- www.limburg.nl
- An information leaflet from Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule, Aachen University, presented to me by a man on the seismic vibrator vehicle
Related article in Osho News
- Neither Big Nor a Bang – An essay by Shanti from the series, At home in the Universe
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