Moon Bell: A New Way to Catch Gravitational Waves ⚡ экспресс
In the millihertz range, gravitational waves cannot be detected on Earth due to seismic background noise. The Moon, however, is seismically quiet, and its surface vibrates at its natural frequencies (normal modes) under the influence of waves, like a giant resonator. The LILA project will deploy a laser interferometer on the Moon, whose sensitivity in the Pioneer phase will be limited only by Brownian thermal noise of the optics — enough to study black holes and neutron stars. The next stage, LILA Horizon, promises to reach the horizon of the Universe. The Moon will become an instrument capable of hearing the hum of cosmic birth.
Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time, predicted by Einstein over a century ago. Earth-based detectors catch them with lasers, but are blind to low frequencies: hampered by the trembling of the Earth's crust and the thermal jitter of mirrors. The Moon is the perfect listener: no wind, no oceans, no tectonics. A passing low-frequency gravitational wave makes the Moon ring like a bell. The LILA mission will install laser sensors to capture this ringing.
LILA Pioneer will register mergers of black holes and neutron stars at frequencies from millihertz to decihertz. LILA Horizon will reach the edge of the visible Universe—to where the first galaxies were born. This is how we'll hear the echo of the expansion of the Universe. A half-century-old idea gains cosmic scale.
🎯 In the 1960s, [scientist:Joseph Weber]Joseph Weber[/scientist] built the first detector—an aluminum cylinder bell. Today, we've turned the whole Moon into a bell.