this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
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Astronomy

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NASA Reveals Prototype Telescope for Gravitational Wave Observatory (science.nasa.gov)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Wow it's tiny

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Telescope is almost a misnomer here. It will be "looking" at other satellites, not astronomically distant objects.

The influence of gravitational waves will be seen in changes in the relative distance to each of the six satellites.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yes, but also no.

Each side of the triangular array will measure nearly 1.6 million miles, or 2.5 million kilometers.

The satellites themselves may be small, but the interferometer antenna they'll collectively form will be huge.