The "Sky Harp" program initiated by Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, has attracted considerable attention since the discovery of gravitational waves by U.S. scientists.
The school revealed its itinerary for the exploration of gravitational waves on Feb. 21 at a symposium focusing on its "Sky Harp" program that is expected to be completed in 15 to 20 years.
It involves the launch of three synchronized satellites in the form of an equilateral triangle with no pull or drag to prevent the intervention of external forces, such as solar wind and Solar Radiation Pressure. The program will use lasers to detect precisely the changes of the satellites' distance from Earth caused by gravitational waves.
The "Sky Harp" program will mostly target the gravitational waves of a super compacted double dwarf system with a cycle as short as 5.4 minutes.
As the program requires the precise placing of the three satellites in orbit, the university will first use lasers to establish the distance of the Moon and stars in deep space in order to ensure precise satellite positioning within millimeters. Meanwhile, based on the tests of the equivalence principle in space and the gravity satellites of the next generation, the "Sky Harp" will ultimately reach its goal to detect gravitational waves in space.
Luo Jun, president of Sun Yat-sen University said, compared to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), the "Sky Harp" will proceed with the assistance of optics to sustainably detect the continuous gravitational wave in low frequency, which is different from the detection of the explosive short-term wave by LIGO.
In addition to its fundamental service to theoretical sciences, thecritical technologies of "Sky Harp" program can also be applied to a number of practical fields, such as, the precise detection of the earth's gravity field to provide a better understanding of the present and changing landscape of the Earth as well as its water and mineral resources.
It can also precisely measure the distance as large as those between the two satellites and as minor as that of the atomic scale, said Luo.
As a program initiated and headed by the Sun Yat-sen University, a number of key researchers from Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and prominent professors from Germany, Italy and France expressed their intention to be partners of the "Sky Harp" program in addition to national universities and institutes. Besides, several professors from Moscow have already joined.
