Many research groups worldwide are currently trying to develop instruments to collect high-precision measurements, such as atomic clocks or gravimeters. Some of these researchers have tried to achieve this using entangled quantum states, which have a higher sensitivity to quantities than classical or non-entangled states. …
Tag: sensitivity
TAMA300 blazes trail for improved gravitational wave astronomy
Researchers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) have used the infrastructure of the former TAMA300 gravitational wave detector in Mitaka, Tokyo, to demonstrate a new technique to reduce quantum noise in detectors. This new technique will increase the sensitivity of the detectors comprising a collaborative worldwide gravitational wave network, allowing them to observe fainter waves. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-04-tama300-blazes-trail-gravitational-astronomy.html…
A unique (so far) gravitational wave signal
LIGO and Virgo detectors have now captured the first gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger where the black hole masses are unequal. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/a-gravitational-wave-signal-like-none-before…
What are gravitational waves?
First postulated by Albert Einstein in 1916 but not observed directly until September 2015, gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/definition-what-are-gravitational-waves…
Hubble celebrates its 30th anniversary
For 30 years, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, launched April 24, 1990, has been snapping photos of distant stars, providing a time machine that has taken astronomers back to when the universe was less than a billion years old. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/hubble-30th-anniversary-video…
Experiment Finds That Gravity Still Works Down To 50 Micrometers
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a report via Ars Technica: To make small-scale gravity measurements, researchers rely on conceptually simple experiments: measure the changes in rotational speed of an oscillating disc that is subject to a periodically changing gravitational force. The periodic force is supplied by a spinning disc. Both discs have wedges cut out so that the force…
First high-sensitivity dark matter axion hunting results from South Korea
Researchers at the Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research (CAPP), within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS, South Korea), have reported the first results of their search of axions, elusive, ultra-lightweight particles that are considered dark matter candidates. IBS-CAPP is located at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Published in Physical Review Letters, the analysis combines data taken…
US Government, Tech Industry Discussing Ways To Use Smartphone Location Data To Combat Coronavirus
The U.S. government is in active talks with Facebook, Google and a wide array of tech companies and health experts about how they can use location data gleaned from Americans’ phones to combat the novel coronavirus, including tracking whether people are keeping one another at safe distances to stem the outbreak. From a report: Public-health experts are interested in the possibility…
Iran’s Coronavirus Burial Pits Are So Vast They’re Visible From Space
“Iranian authorities began digging a pair of trenches for victims just days after the government disclosed the initial outbreak,” writes Slashdot reader schwit1. “Together, their lengths are that of a football field.” The Washington Post reports: Two days after Iran declared its first cases of the novel coronavirus — in what would become one of the largest outbreaks of the illness…
Pollux: The brighter twin star
Pollux, the brightest star in the constellation Gemini, blazes in a golden light next to its bluish-white heavenly twin, Castor, in the evening skies of the Northern Hemisphere’s spring. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/pollux-not-castor-is-geminis-brightest-star…