Scientists turn to the moon to catch spacetime’s faintest music
To detect gravitational waves, a detector must be isolated from all vibrations that could obscure the elusive signals. Even the world’s frontline observatories can thus only spot gravitational waves from 7 billion lightyears away. This may be about to change as cosmologists look forward to opening a new window on the gravitational sky
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras explained the universe using the ‘Music of the Spheres’, orbs on which celestial objects moved in consonance with mathematical harmonies to create a cosmic symphony of sorts.
Today, astronomers are treated to this ethereal ‘music’ every time they eavesdrop on the universe using radio telescopes to unravel its mysteries. The bass hum they hear is a mix of the electromagnetic signatures of the most colossal objects in the universe — neutron stars (extremely dense remnants of massive stars that exploded), pulsars (rapidly rotating neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation from their magnetic poles), and black holes.