China builds gravitational wave telescope at 5,000 m altitude

China has begun building the world's tallest gravitational wave telescope in Tibet, 5,000 meters above sea level.

China builds world's tallest gravitational wave telescope in Tibet. Photo: Indian Defence News.

China has just started building the world's tallest gravitational wave telescope in Ngari, Tibet, 30 km south of Shiquanhe town. The telescope will be 5,000 m above sea level. The budget for the project is estimated at 18.8 million USD, Science World Report reported on January 16.

According to China Daily, the location of the telescope is one of the best in the Northern Hemisphere to study primordial gravitational waves, as Tibet's dry climate and thin air reduce the effects of humidity. Construction of the observatory is expected to be completed in five years.

In 1915, Albert Einstein was the first to predict gravitational waves in his general theory of relativity. Gravitational waves are created by collisions between celestial bodies in the universe. They were first detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), USA, in September 2015. LIGO found traces of ripples created by the merger of two black holes 1.3 billion years ago.

The new telescope will be tasked with detecting primordial gravitational waves, which scientists believe were created during the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago and have never been detected until now.

"What we are looking for are primordial gravitational waves that traveled 13.8 billion years ago before reaching Earth, and if they exist, they are very weak," said Wang Junjie, an astrophysicist at the National Astronomical Observatories of China.

According to VNE