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Published online 5 March 2008 | Nature 452, 18-21 (2008) | doi:10.1038/452018a
News Feature
Gravitational astronomy: Hearing the heavens
The cosmos is thought to be awash with gravitational waves to which humanity is, as yet, deaf. Trudy E. Bell reports on LISA, an experiment on an unprecedented scale designed to put that right.
Imagine a new constellation — a narrow triangle about as deep as the scoop of the Big Dipper. But this constellation, unlike the familiar natural ones, moves through the sky, always appearing in the evening sky after sunset.
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I have always thought that the sound waves, generated by the "big bang" are the dark energy source that scientists have been searching for. This seems too simple an answer for the mysterious dark energy, and yet would not an explosion with the size and power of the singularity known as the "big bang" generate sound waves along with all the forms of electromagnetic energy. If anyone could comment on this simplistic notion it would be appreciated. Thank you. email: mickey3762@hotmai.com
Among those many, literally astronomical numbers that my imagination cannot possibly process, I felt a comforting relief upon reading that the test objects in LISA Pathfinder will be only "a few tens of centimetres" apart. It was strangely reassuring that even 1500000km from us down-to-earth distances like that could exist.