New gravitational wave telescope developed in collaboration with Sheffield scientists
Scientists from the University of Sheffield have collaborated on the production of a new telescope that will explore space for optical clues about violent cosmic events that create ripples, or waves, in the fabric of space itself. Observatories are currently only able to measure the effects of waves as they pass through our local swath of space-time, which makes it difficult to trace the origin of the source. The new telescope, named the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO), will fill this gap by searching for optical signals in the electromagnetic spectrum that might indicate the source of the wave. A new telescope, consisting of two identical arrays on opposite sides of the planet, one at La Palma in the Canary Islands and the other in Australia, has been produced to track the source of gravitational waves for the first time. The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO), a collaborative project led by the University of Warwick and with major contributions