Science, Space and Technology News 2024
The Einstein Telescope is being built around 250 meters underground. With interferometers in the three tunnels, each ten kilometers long, it will measure collisions of black holes in the early universe. Credit: NIKHEFIt’s still just a plan, but a new telescope could soon be measuring gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are something like the sound waves of the universe. They are created, for example, when black holes or neutron stars collide.
A prototype for the highly stable holmium-doped fiber amplifier is currently being developed at the Fraunhofer ILT. The new laser technology can potentially also be used in other application areas, e.g. in quantum technology or medical technology. Credit: Fraunhofer ILT, Aachen, GermanyThanks to gravitational wave detectors, we already know more about the collisions of neutron stars. By galactic standards, these are very fast processes.
This is made possible by so-called laser interferometers. They consist of two arms with mirrors at the ends. A laser beam enters the interferometer and is split at a beam splitter in the middle. It travels to the end mirrors in the two arms and back to the beam splitter. If the position of the mirror at the end of an arm changes, the transit time of the respective laser beam varies by a tiny amount.
The Einstein Telescope will consist of three nested detectors. Each of these detectors will have two laser interferometers with 10 km long arms. In order to shield as much interference as possible, the observatory shall be built 250 m underground. With its inclusion in the ESFRI Roadmap, the Einstein Telescope has entered the preparation phase. The budget has been estimated at 1.8 billion euros. Operation is expected to cost around 40 million euros per year. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2026, with observations due to start in 2035.
A large team is already working on the actual measurement equipment at various locations. In addition to RWTH Aachen University, this also includes the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen. New lasers are currently being developed there, without which the new measurements would not be possible.
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