Auriga (yellow), the gravitational wave detector at Legnaro, Italy. Together with its twin detector Nautilus at Frascati, Italy, they are the first ul

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Auriga (yellow), the gravitational wave detector at Legnaro, Italy. Together with its twin detector Nautilus at Frascati, Italy, they are the first ultracryogenic antennae in the world. The gravitational waves are detected by a cylindrical bar 3m long suspended in the yellow cage. The bar is cooled to a temperature of about Kelvin, by using 2000 litres of liquid helium, which minimises the atomic thermal vibrations of the bar. Auriga will be aimed at detecting gravitational waves originating from supernova explosions. Such gravitational waves are believed to cause vibrations in the bar with an amplitude of a billionth of a billionth of a metre.

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Photo credit: © TOMMASO GUICCIARDINI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: auriga, cosmology, detector, gravitational, gravity, italy, physics, relativity, research, supernova, wave