They were proposed almost exactly 100 years ago by Albert Einstein, based on his theory of general relativity, but it was only in February 2016 that scientists proved the existence of gravitational waves. And now, china is setting up the world’s highest gravitational wave telescopes in a Tibet prefecture, close to Line of Actual Control with India, with a budget of $18.8 million to detect faintest echoes resonating from universe which may reveal more about the Big Bang theory.
Yao Yongqiang chief researcher with the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said. “Construction has started for the first telescope, code-named Ngari No.1, 30 Km south of Shiquanhe Town in Ngari Prefecture.”
“The second phase involves a series of telescopes, code-named Ngari No.2, to be located about 6,000 meters above sea level,” Yao said. However, he did not give a time frame for construction of Ngari No.2. The budget for the two-phase Ngari gravitational wave observatory is an estimated 130 million Yuan ($18.8 million).
The project was initiated by the Institute of High Energy Physics, National Astronomical Observatories, and Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, among others, the report said.
According to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), “Gravitational waves are ‘ripples’ in the fabric of space-time caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe. The strongest gravitational waves are produced by catastrophic events such as colliding black holes, the collapse of stellar cores (supernovae), coalescing neutron stars or white dwarf stars, the slightly wobbly rotation of neutron stars that are not perfect spheres, and the remnants of gravitational radiation created by the birth of the universe itself.”
“The Ngari observatory will be among the world’s top primordial gravitational wave observation bases, alongside the South Pole Telescope and the facility in Chile’s Atacama Desert,” Yao said.
Located 5,250 meters (over 17,200 feet) above sea level in Tibet, the Chinese telescope will be very well-placed to study the primordial phenomenon. The region has clear skies and minimal human activity, making it deal for observing faint echos from the earliest days of the universe, soon after the Big Bang.