By Aaron Fernandes

Western Australia is poised to play a key strategic role in global attempts to understand the origins of the universe, after the official launch of a multi-million dollar southern hemisphere gravitational wave observatory project at the University of Western Australia.

In what UWA claims to be one of the most challenging scientific endeavours ever undertaken, the project aims to directly detect vibrations of space called gravitational waves.

It is anticipated scientists around the world will be able to detect gravitational waves from colliding stars and black holes and, with the addition of the detector in WA, pin down their location in the universe.

Dr David Blair, Director of UWA’s Australian International Gravitational Research Centre (AIGO), said research into gravitational waves will enable humanity to ‘listen' to the universe and unravel its invisible mysteries.

"The direct and frequent detection of gravitational waves…offers an opportunity of exploring a brand new spectrum.  They offer us a means of probing the earliest moments of the big bang where time began, and they allow us to probe the birth and coalescence of black holes where time comes to an end.

“Rare and extreme states of matter which are inaccessible to direct observation by any other means can be observed in detail in gravitational waves…the largest and most sensitive instruments ever built.

“They operate near to the ultimate limits to measurement.  A multi-kilometre system of lasers and mirrors becomes a single quantum object akin to a single atom.  They can detect vibrations much smaller than the size of an atomic nucleus.”

The conference has attracted researchers from the USA, China, India, France, Germany and Italy and teams from the five Australian universities coordinating the project.

Gravitational Waves International Committee executive secretary Prof Stan Whitcomb said the research would build stronger research and development ties between Australia and the rest of the world.

“Gravitational waves are really exciting, they are a totally new phenomenon in astrophysics that bring to us critical information that you can’t get any other way.

“There is a strong international effort. That we have leaders from various projects from around the world coming here to express their support is indicative of the global support of these communities.”

US Consul General Dr Kenneth Chern was also on hand to extend cooperation in science and technology.

“It is really exciting to see the US gravitational wave community in such strong support of AIGO and that the American scientists feel that international efforst will benefit greatly from AIGO here in Australia,” he said.

“Science knows no country, because it belongs to humanity and is the torch that illuminates the world.”

The launch included the premiere presentation of a short supercomputer generated movie Exploring the Dark Side of the Universe, featuring The Black Hole Orchestra, the first ever musical composition based on the sounds of black holes.

Experiments at AIGO’S Gingin Gravity Centre are now underway to demonstrate the technologies needed for the operation of detectors at high optical power levels.

For more information visit www.aigo.org.au

To find original article, please visit ScienceNetwork WA.

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