Telescope optics set to aid gravitational detection

The €790m (£688m) Einstein Telescope should be completed by 2025, by which time it will be capable of detecting gravitational waves around 100 orders of magnitude fainter than current devices can.

Gravitational waves have recently been studied and characterised by Nasa’s Gravity Probe B and ESA’s GOCE satellites. However, these were focused on the Earth’s gravitational field and how it warps space and time locally — the Einstein telescope will look for faint ripples of gravitational waves from violent events in the distant universe.

‘Many people think gravity is only a local force, but it’s quite the opposite, in fact — in terms of range, gravity is the force with the longest reach, but it is also the weakest and that’s one of the questions that’s still under debate — why should this be?,’ said Andreas Freise of Birmingham University, who is leading the optical design of the telescope.

To detect such faint gravitational waves the Einstein Telescope will use a so-called next-generation interferometer design.