Slashdot Mirror
Astrophysicists Use Apollo Seismic Array To Hunt For Gravitational Waves
KentuckyFC writes: Back in the 1970s, the astronauts from Apollos 12, 14, 15, and 16 set up an array of seismometers on the lunar surface to listen for moonquakes. This array sent back data until 1977, when NASA switched it off. Now astrophysicists are using this lunar seismic data in the hunt for gravitational waves. The idea is that gravitational waves must squeeze and stretch the Moon as they pass by and that at certain resonant frequencies, this could trigger the kind of seismic groans that the array ought to have picked up. However, the data shows no evidence of activity at the relevant frequencies.
That's important because it has allowed astronomers to put the strongest limits yet on the strength of gravitational waves in this part of the universe. Earlier this year, the same team used a similar approach with terrestrial seismic data to strengthen the existing limits by 9 orders of magnitude. The lunar data betters this by yet another order of magnitude because there is no noise from sources such as oceans, the atmosphere and plate tectonics. The work shows that good science on gravitational waves can be done without spending the hundreds of millions of dollars for bespoke gravitational wave detectors, such as LIGO, which have yet to find any evidence of the waves either.
That's important because it has allowed astronomers to put the strongest limits yet on the strength of gravitational waves in this part of the universe. Earlier this year, the same team used a similar approach with terrestrial seismic data to strengthen the existing limits by 9 orders of magnitude. The lunar data betters this by yet another order of magnitude because there is no noise from sources such as oceans, the atmosphere and plate tectonics. The work shows that good science on gravitational waves can be done without spending the hundreds of millions of dollars for bespoke gravitational wave detectors, such as LIGO, which have yet to find any evidence of the waves either.
"One wonders what remarkable scientific discoveries and conclusions will result from creative analysis of today's data, forty years hence."
None whatsoever if the data isn't curated.
One of my constant battles is to get resources to retain data from old space missions. They're flagwaving missions first and scientific expeditions second, which means there's very little interest in keeping record around for prolonged periods.
That's DESPITE pointing out that if the raw data for NOAA satellites hadn't been kept, it would have been impossible to use them to confirm the existance and development of the ozone hole, simply because the processing system discarded low data values as "equipment error" - which added 20 years to the discovery of the thing in the first place.