Comment Project LISA, does NASA believe Einstein? (Score 2, Informative) 250
From the ESA website
LISA
LISA is an ESA-NASA mission involving three spacecraft flying approximately 5 million kilometres apart in an equilateral triangle formation. Together, they act as a Michelson interferometer to measure the distortion of space caused by passing gravitational waves. Lasers in each spacecraft will be used to measure minute changes in the separation distances of free-floating masses within each spacecraft.
The LISA mission is designed to search for and detect gravitational radiation from astronomical sources. In the process, LISA can test some of the fundamental tenets of the theory of gravitation.
The most predictable sources
The most predictable sources of gravitational waves are binary star systems in our galaxy. LISA's observations of these systems would be of interest both for fundamental physics and for astrophysics. The LISA design is such that both the amplitude and also the polarization of gravitational waves can be measured. If gravitational radiation from known binary systems is not detected, or is detected with amplitudes or polarizations not predicted by general relativity, then general relativity must be wrong. If the sources are detected then the polarization measurement reveals the angle of inclination of the orbit of the binary system. This is a crucial missing factor from many optical observations of these systems, and is necessary in order to infer the mass of the stars in the binary pair.
Why so much emphasis on Einstein's Theory all of a sudden??
SBD
LISA
LISA is an ESA-NASA mission involving three spacecraft flying approximately 5 million kilometres apart in an equilateral triangle formation. Together, they act as a Michelson interferometer to measure the distortion of space caused by passing gravitational waves. Lasers in each spacecraft will be used to measure minute changes in the separation distances of free-floating masses within each spacecraft.
The LISA mission is designed to search for and detect gravitational radiation from astronomical sources. In the process, LISA can test some of the fundamental tenets of the theory of gravitation.
The most predictable sources
The most predictable sources of gravitational waves are binary star systems in our galaxy. LISA's observations of these systems would be of interest both for fundamental physics and for astrophysics. The LISA design is such that both the amplitude and also the polarization of gravitational waves can be measured. If gravitational radiation from known binary systems is not detected, or is detected with amplitudes or polarizations not predicted by general relativity, then general relativity must be wrong. If the sources are detected then the polarization measurement reveals the angle of inclination of the orbit of the binary system. This is a crucial missing factor from many optical observations of these systems, and is necessary in order to infer the mass of the stars in the binary pair.
Why so much emphasis on Einstein's Theory all of a sudden??
SBD
