Gravitational waves, tiny ripples in spacetime caused by cosmic collisions like merging black holes, are almost impossibly faint. Detecting them requires LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), one of the most sensitive instruments ever built.
However, there’s a catch. To see farther and catch weaker signals, LIGO needs more powerful lasers, but stronger lasers slightly bend the mirrors, and even tiny bends smaller than a proton can block the signals.
A team of researchers has developed a new system called FROSTI to fix this problem, enabling LIGO and future observatories to explore the cosmos more deeply than ever before…