Einstein's silence: Listening for space-time ripples

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To hear gravitational waves – faint murmurs in the fabric of space-time – requires a place quieter than quietness itself. New Scientist pays a visit

DUSK has descended on Rattlesnake Mountain. A thin crescent moon hangs over the ridge, while Venus shines through thin wisps of cirrus clouds. The Yakima people call Rattlesnake "the land above the water", apparently because it once stood untouched while floods ravaged the plains below.

Today the treeless ridge stands 1000 metres high overlooking a silent sagebrush-covered steppe in the east of Washington state. Its silence holds secrets. "...The mountain's folds and shadows / roll with stars, soft April greens, and lupine / belying missile silos hidden in catacombs / and the waste of 50 years of atomic bombs," wrote Washington's poet laureate, Kathleen Flenniken, who grew up nearby.

 

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Lisa Pathfinder: Gravity quest set to go into orbit

Europe is ready to launch its most exquisite satellite mission yet.

Lisa Pathfinder is a fundamental physics experiment that will test the technology needed to detect gravitational waves - what are sometimes referred to as ripples in the curvature of space-time.

Scientists and engineers have declared the demonstrator ready to fly after more than a decade of development.

It will likely go up in November on the European Space Agency's Vega rocket.

The month marks the 100-year anniversary of when Einstein published the field equations that underpinned his Theory of General Relativity.

Gravitational waves are a direct consequence of that grand idea. And although there is plenty of evidence to suggest the Universe is awash with these ripples, so far no actual detection has been made – either here on Earth or in space.