Widdekind Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 Could you use reflectors, anchored to the moon, for long-base-line Gravity Wave detectors? What about satellites, or systems thereof, in Geo-Synchronous Orbit? (Or, given the success of detecting earth's precession, with Relativistic accuracy, w/ gyro-scopes, could 3 mutually-perpendicular gyro-scopes detect GWs -- i.e., would GWs affect transverse vs. longitudinal rotations differently??) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 http://lisa.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Cuthber Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 "Could you use reflectors, anchored to the moon, for long-base-line Gravity Wave detectors?" Yes, but where would you put the other end of the base line? Earth's atmosphere pretty much rules it out. So you would need a satellite in orbit round the moon to use as the "other end" You could do that, but the earth's gravitational field would make it difficult. It's probably best to do what they already chose to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajb Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 I also wonder if moon quakes would disturb the experiments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widdekind Posted October 4, 2011 Author Share Posted October 4, 2011 Thanks for the clarifications. If I might impose -- if interferometry allows multiple radio dishes, to be "thralled" together, to mimic a (patchy) radar of much larger dimensions... can something similar be done, at optical wavelengths ? To wit, could a "farm" of "solar panels", as it were, be thralled together, to mimic large >1000m, multi-acre, mirrors ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Yes, there's optical interferometry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLT The trouble is that it's difficult to accurately combine light beams that are received a large distance apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 1000m? No, not currently, AFAIK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_Prototype_Optical_Interferometer http://www2.lowell.edu/npoi/ The instrument shop in our basement did a lot of the work for this. When they weren't doing important machining, like atomic fountain parts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widdekind Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 Wow -- what about using existing sight-lines, to distant stars, in substitute for the legs of LISA; and, then, looking for "gravitational scintillation" effects, from passing gravity waves ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widdekind Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 All I'm saying is, "gravitational lensing" -- i.e., a transiting compact object makes observable "gravitational scintillations" in earth-bound light rays, by "warping" space-time; similarly, masses can also induce propagating "vibrations" in space-time, which would produce effects similar to grav. lensing, i.e., "grav. scintillation". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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