A Star Trek-style detector looking for ripples in spacetime could spot alien spacecraft ‘warp drive’ through the Milky Way, according to new research.
Researchers from several US institutions propose using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) to search for gravitational waves caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe.
The team believes LIGO is powerful enough to detect “warp drives,” theoretical engines that powered the USS Enterprise’s interstellar missions in the cult TV series Star Trek.
LIGO can detect such spacecraft within about 326,000 light-years from Earth, and more sensitive planned gravitational-wave detectors could extend that distance even further.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory is considered a Star Trek-style detector because it could detect the ship’s warp drive, which is the theoretical engine powering the USS Enterprise’s interstellar missions in the cult TV series
Lead author Gianni Martire, CEO of New York think tank Applied Physics, told SWS, “With trillions of stars out there, are you telling me there aren’t any extraterrestrials that haven’t done this? Only one? I think the odds are in our favor.”
Experts said vehicles powerful enough to surf the universe would be massive — as big as a giant gas planet like Jupiter.
The study found it would have to be moving at about a tenth the speed of light — almost 20,000 miles per second, reports New Scientist.
The study, published in arXiv, notes that current probes search for intelligent life in space, searching “thousands of tens of thousands of stars,” while LIGO can probe the more than 100 billion in the Milky Way.
Warp drives work by deforming the fabric of space-time around the spacecraft and creating their own “folds”.
And although it’s science fiction, gravitational waves are very real.
The famous physicist Albert Einstein predicted their existence in his 1916 General Theory of Relativity.
“Einstein’s mathematics showed that massively accelerating objects (such as neutron stars or black holes orbiting one another) would perturb spacetime, causing ‘waves’ of undulating spacetime to propagate in all directions away from the source,” it says LIGO website.
“These cosmic waves would travel at the speed of light, carrying with them information about their origin and clues to the nature of gravity itself.”
And while Einstein predicted gravitational waves, the idea wasn’t proven until 20 years after his death.
In 1974, astronomers used the now-defunct Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico.
They discovered a binary pulsar, white dwarf, or neutron star, the type of system that general relativity predicted should emit gravitational waves.
Then, in 2015, scientists confirmed gravitational waves when LIGO observed two black holes colliding 1.3 billion years ago.
The observatory would identify warp drive as gravitational waves, which are ripples in spacetime caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe – such as B. the collision of two black holes (pictured).
LIGO is located in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana
While some critics may think that comets produce gravitational waves that could be confused with warp drive, Martire said, “You can tell between a rock and warp drive the same way you can tell if a jet ski or a boat went by.”
“Both create waves, but they have a particular signature in their wake,” he continued.
Even if it weren’t an alien spacecraft, but simply a giant object moving much faster than we expect from something that big, it would be a significant find, Martire said.
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LIGO DETECTOR: TWO OBSERVATORIES THAT detect gravitational waves from events on a galactic scale
LIGO consists of two observatories that detect gravitational waves by splitting a laser beam and sending it through tunnels several kilometers long before recombining the light waves.
A passing gravitational wave changes the shape of space by a tiny amount, and LIGO was built with the ability to measure a change in distance of just one ten-thousandth the width of a proton.
However, this sensitivity means that any amount of noise, even people walking on the construction site or raindrops, can be detected.
The LIGO detectors are interferometers that shine a laser through a vacuum along two L-shaped arms, each 2.5 miles (four kilometers) long.
The light from the laser bounces back and forth between mirrors at each end of the L, and the scientists use the light to measure the length of both arms.
When there is a perturbation in space-time, such as For example, in a gravitational wave, the time it takes for light to travel the distance is slightly different in each arm, making one arm appear longer than the other.
LIGO (pictured) consists of two observatories that detect gravitational waves by splitting a laser beam and sending it through tunnels several kilometers long before recombining the light waves
Ligo scientists measure the interference in the two beams of light as they meet again, providing information about the space-time perturbation.
To ensure the results are accurate, LIGO uses two observatories, 1,870 miles (3,000 kilometers) apart, working in sync, with each double-checking the other’s observations.
The noise at each detector should be completely uncorrelated, meaning noise like a storm near one detector will not show up as noise at the other.
Some of the “noise sources” the team struggles with are: “a constant “hiss” of photons arriving at our light detectors like raindrops; rumbles of seismic sounds such as earthquakes and the pounding of the oceans on the earth’s crust; Strong winds shake the buildings so much that they affect our detectors.’
However, if a gravitational wave is found, it should produce a similar signal in both instruments almost simultaneously.