Aug 9, 2011 12:34 GMT  ·  By

Two ground-based gravitational wave detectors in Europe are working in tandem to search for signs of gravitational waves, which Albert Einstein predicted to be distortions in spacetime. According to theory, these ripples can be caused by a variety of sources.

These include merging black holes, colliding neutron stars, massive supernova explosions, certain types of rotating neutron stars and so on. What these events have in common is the fact that they produce large-scale ripples in the fabric of spacetime, which then move through the Universe.

These oscillations can theoretically be detected, but in practice this has proven to be extremely difficult to do. Astronomers say that they need a space-based system in order to detect the waves as soon as possible, but NASA recently pulled out of the LISA project it set up with the European Space Agency.

Now, the GEO600 detector team – which is made up of researchers in Germany and the UK – is working together with scientists at the Virgo detector. The latter is a collaboration between experts in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Hungary.

The joint project they carry out together will conclude in September 2011. “If you compare GEO600 and Virgo, you can see that both detectors have similar sensitivities at high frequencies, at around 600Hz and above,” Dr Hartmut Grote explains.

“That makes it very interesting for us to search this band for possible gravitational waves associated with supernovae or gamma-ray bursts that are observed with conventional telescopes,” he adds, quoted by Universe Today.

The expert holds an appointment as a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI). He is also based at the Leibniz University, in Hannover.

According to physicists, gravitational wave detectors need to be placed at a large distance from each other. It's only in a spaced configuration that the instruments may be able to pick up the massive, slow-moving waves.

Experts plans to focus their investigations on gamma-ray bursts (GRB), the most energetic and intense phenomena in the entire Universe. Einstein's Theory of General Relativity holds that these events are the most likely to produce gravitational waves we can detect.