The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory is spearheading the completely new field of gravitational wave astronomy and opening a whole new window on the universe. LIGO's exquisitely sensitive instruments may ultimately take us farther back in time than we've ever been, catching, perhaps, the first murmurs of the universe in formation.

Great Sift.

yay for science sifts

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Wouldn't any stretching of space stretch the laser beam just as much, resulting in no observable interference? For a long time the meter was defined as a multiple of the wavelength of a certain emmission line from Krypton-86. How can spacial distances and light wavelengths be stretched differently when spacial distances are defined as multiples of wavelengths?

The fact that the rate of expansion of the universe is increasing, and the fact that the Big Bang ever happened at all, is proof enough that there is something seriously wrong or missing in General Relativity.

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