A Galaxy-Sized Observatory For Gravitational Waves

KentuckyFC writes "Gravitational waves squash and stretch space as they travel through the universe. Current attempts to spot them involve monitoring a region of space several kilometers across on Earth for the telltale signs of this squeezing. These experiments have so far seen nothing. But by monitoring an array of pulsars throughout the galaxy, astronomers should be able to see the effects of gravitational waves passing by. They say such an array of pulsars should effectively shimmer as the gravitational waves wash over it, like a grid of buoys bobbing on the ocean. That'll create an observatory that is effectively the size of the entire galaxy. These observations should be capable of monitoring how galaxies and supermassive black holes evolve together, and shed light on the physics of the early universe. Best of all, the next generation of radio-telescope arrays should be capable of making these observations at a cost of around $66 million over ten years. That's a small fraction of the hundreds of millions that Earth-based observatories have already cost."

Comments

I don't get it.

[XPeter]

We spend billions on observatories, but what's the point? I understand taking an in-depth look at our galaxy, but this is ridiculous. We should concentrate on landing on mars and other planets in our solar system, then concentrate on other things.

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[account_deleted]

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That's dumb

[tjstork]

Maybe we're just skeptical and don't believe that they exist until you can prove that they do. I thought that was called science. What you are saying is that Santa Clause exists,but you just haven't seen him yet. Let me know when he shows up.

Re:That's dumb

[tjstork]

He'll stick to his scientifically ignorant position, and you will fail to educate him.

Oh look at you, the same old lying liberal pig as ever. All you talk about is learning with one hand while on the other you ban owning chemistry sets, get rid of electricity experiments in schools, forbid kids from flying rockets in fields, or planes, or working with any sort of mechanical thing in the name of safety.

You can talk about how much you love science and point your crooked and greedy finger at religion as the supposed enemy of man, but the fact is, science is even more the enemy of you communists, because you sick and subhuman traitors are not interested in humanity advancing as much as you are in every human being the exact same thing. You ban altering the earth in every conceivable way, all the while laughing at people caught up in your lies of environmentalism and safety.

Yet, the truth is really simple, you evil bastard. You can't learn about biology unless you cut the animal open first. You can't learn about the earth unless you dig inside it. You can't learn about the sky unless you fly in it. You can't learn about chemicals until you mix them. The more you block people from doing it, the more you spread ignorance throughout humanity.

And the thing is, your side is doing it deliberately, because at the end of the day, you want to hoard knowledge, not share it.