Light Carousel Measures Earth's Rotation ⚡ экспресс
Within the GINGER project, a new ring laser gyroscope has been created—a device that uses laser beams to measure Earth's rotation with extreme precision. Engineers used special spacers to reduce instrumental noise and increase the size of the instrument. The TRIO prototype, with a side length of 1.52 meters, turned out compact enough for transportation and has already provided the first data on Earth's angular velocity. Comparison with the larger stationary gyroscope GINGERINO showed that the new design works correctly—an important step toward creating a whole network of such 'planetary listeners'.
Two beams of light race around a closed loop, heading toward each other. Since the speed of light is constant, when the ring turns, one beam has to catch up with a moving finish line, while the other meets it sooner. Their meeting creates a pattern, and from that pattern we can tell how fast the whole system is spinning. That’s the light carousel at the heart of TRIO, a device assembled in the underground Gran Sasso laboratory.
Thanks to a clever design, the carousel barely shakes on its own, and its ring can be enlarged to five meters. This will allow it not only to monitor the planet’s rotation but also to catch gravitational waves — ripples in the very fabric of the universe. Someday the instrument will test how massive objects warp spacetime — a prediction by Einstein. And the largest such rings, already the size of a football field, can detect how distant earthquakes knock the planet off its rhythm.
🎯 Giant ring lasers with a perimeter of a hundred meters can sense how an earthquake on the other side of the world changes the planet’s rotation speed.