what is it and why is it important? «It will allow us to understand the history of the Universe»- Corriere.it

A challenge absolutely within our reach if we return to being an Italy capable of thinking big, of thinking big. the Italy that we may have recently lost and that we want to recover. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s goal is to host the Einstein telescope in Italy, the super-eye for investigating the Cosmos and that could solve the mystery of dark matter and dark energy, discover how black holes were formed in the center of galaxies, test Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The Prime Minister presented to Inaf, the National Institute of Astrophysics, the Italy’s candidacy to host the most powerful gravitational wave detector ever designed: the Einstein Telescope (ET), in fact, the gigantic research facility with a total investment of 1.9 billion euros and which it would like to place in Sardiniain the disused mine of Sos Enattos in Lula, in the province of Nuoro.

The international coordinator of the project

Italy has played a fundamental role in the conception of the project. Physicist Michele Punturo, researcher at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn),

international coordinator of the Einstein Telescope scientific collaboration. The idea of ​​ET was born in 2004, in 2007 I proposed the conceptual design to the European Commission and it was financed – he explains -. More than a telescope it is a detector, an observatory who listens to the gravitational waves arriving from the Universe generated by catastrophic phenomena such as the merger of black holes. To be correct, we should call it “microphone”. ET a third generation detector (identifies through algorithms where the sound of the wave comes from) and the father of Ligo and Virgo, the first and second generation detectors located, respectively, in the United States and in Italy, near Pisa . Their similar operation, the difference lies in the technology, in ET taken to the limit, and in the design, which is much more advanced because now we want to go underground while they stay on the surface – continues Punturo -. ET will be placed at a depth between 100 and 300 meters, to isolate it from the movements of seismic waveswill have a perimeter of about 30 kilometers and will be made up of 10 kilometer long arms inside which very high quality mirrors will be placed which will reflect the light of various lasers making very high precision space-time vibration measurements.

It will allow us to understand the history of the Universe

The observatory owes its name to Albert Einstein and plans to build a gigantic triangular underground interferometer for the search for gravitational waves
. If a gravitational wave crosses the interferometer, the length of the arms oscillates and this infinitesimal variation is revealed by the experiment. We will be able to listen to a much larger volume of the universe and almost arrive at the Big Bang by going to see what the universe was when we have no visible signals through telescopes. We are talking about 13 billion years ago. ET will allow us to understand the history of the Universe. Chances of winning the nomination? Good, from a technical-scientific point of view we are leaders in the world, there is nothing to be done – concludes the physicist -. Our flaw in the organization. In the field of large infrastructures we all know that Italy has major organizational problems. The choice of the site where to build the ET will not take place before the end of 2024 and the observatory will be operational not before 2033.

The nature of black holes

Designed to be at least ten times more accurate in its measurements than current detectors, the ET will be used by scientists to collect signals emitted immediately after the Big Bang and to study the nature of black holes. The telescope will hunt for gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime that propagate at the speed of light, generated by cosmic cataclysms, such as the explosion of supernovae or the collision of black holes or neutron stars. The verification of the existence of gravitational waves represents the missing piece to the experimental verification of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Produced by stellar masses in accelerated motion, gravitational waves, due to the rigidity of spacetime, have an infinitesimal amplitude. Therefore, revealing them is complex and gigantic instruments are needed, such as i detectors interferometric.

Holland, a formidable opponent in the race for candidacy

The identified territory of Sardinia has advantages in terms of low anthropization and the ministry has already invested 50 million in verifying the characteristics of the former Sardinian mine. The most formidable opponents in the race for the candidacy to obtain the seat of Einstein Telescope? Holland, which aims to locate the large telescope near Maastricht. The investment will be there, said the minister of universities and research, Annamaria Bernini, noting that for the construction of the infrastructure an estimated 1.7-1.8 billion in ten years for the construction net of investments already made .