The Italian government is officially nominating the site of Sos Enattos, Sardinia, as the home of the Einstein Telescope, the world's first third-generation gravitational wave observatory that will enable it to listen to a volume of the universe a thousand times greater than that observed by existing detectors, Ligo and Virgo. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Italy will compete with the Netherlands, which has proposed the Limburg site on the border with Belgium and Germany. The candidacy will be examined by the European body Esfri (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) and points to the mine of Sos Enattos, in the Nuoro area, which has suitable characteristics due to the scarcity of human-caused vibrations, very low seismicity, the level of silence and the quality of the rock in relation to the excavation project, explained Nobel Prize winner for Physics Giorgio Parisi, who is supporting the Italian diplomatic action. The decision is expected to come between 2024 and 2025. The project - which involves the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, the National Institute of Astrophysics and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology - will involve the construction of a triangular underground interferometer to search for gravitational waves. Einstein Telescope will "observe" (actually listen for) gravitational waves coming to Earth from deep space. It is dedicated to Albert Einstein, who first hypothesized their existence as a consequence of his theory of general relativity.
|