The border region of South Limburg could become the site of a prestigious European project that provides insight into the mystery of the universe. The telescope to be perceived will be ten times more accurate than current gravitational-wave observatories and provide a unique opportunity to bring gravitational waves, laser wavelengths, and black holes closer together so that the mystery of the Big Bang and Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity are even greater. disintegrated.
Gravitational physics professor at Maastricht University (UM) Stefan Held summarizes what’s really going on at the site in Maastricht, where Project Einstein is being prepared with ET Pathfinder. “Here we develop and test new technologies that we can apply in the Einstein telescope that hasn’t been built yet. This is actually a test setup, a large scale miniature — a prototype — for the newest telescope to be built after 2025.”
Kart tractors
According to the initiators of the Dutch project office, Guido Dirks and Stan Bentvelsen, the arrival of the telescope will be of historic importance for research into the building blocks of our universe, the forces they share and the structure of space and time. Guido Dirks was Director General of the Province of Limburg and previously Director of Urban Development for the Municipality of Maastricht. Stan Bentvelsen is the director of Nikhef, the organization that raises the bar on the science side of the project organization. Together they lead the project office, which has been established since January 1 and is located in the former building of Limburger in the Dubois range in Maastricht. This is also the research and development site where the ET Pathfinder is also set up, where new technologies that could be used in the future in the Einstein telescope to be built are developed and tested. ET Pathfinder remains operational to keep technology up to date.
Sardinia
The Einstein telescope, which may materialize in southern Limburg, will have three arms ten kilometers long. Measurements with detectors of unprecedented reliability. But the telescope’s arrival is by no means certain. Because Sardinia is also in the running for this project that offers not only scientific insight but also a lot of job opportunities. The Dutch-Belgian-German scientific collaboration supports the arrival of this high-quality facility in the border region of South Limburg. Guido Dirks: Before the summer, we spoke extensively 136 with the National Growth Fund Committee led by Jeroen Dijsselbloem and Prince Constantin van Orange, among others. This resulted in the allocation of 930 million euros from the national budget. You really don’t get that easy. The National Growth Fund agreed with us that this type of investment in scientific infrastructure leads to more opportunities for economic development and broad prosperity in the region, in the Netherlands and in the wider Euregio region. “
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