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From an article in Fermilab Today:
Our universe is as mysterious as it is vast. According to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, anything that accelerates creates gravitational waves, which are disturbances in the fabric of space and time that travel at the speed of light and continue infinitely into space. Scientists are trying to measure these possible sources all the way to the beginning of the universe.
The Holometer experiment, based at the Department of Energy's Fermilab, is sensitive to gravitational waves at frequencies in the range of a million cycles per second. Thus it addresses a spectrum not covered by experiments such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, which searches for lower-frequency waves to detect massive cosmic events such as colliding black holes and merging neutron stars.
The absence of a signal provides valuable information about our universe. Although this result does not prove whether the exotic objects exist, it has eliminated the region of the universe where they could be present.
(Score: 2) by dltaylor on Sunday April 12 2015, @02:53AM
I appreciate the elucidations, but they rather prove my point. What force stretched the rope? Is that force detectable in some way? Similarly, the emission of very low energy photons as electrons resume their ground state having been displaced by the expansion of space should be detectable. Very interesting numbers about the possible effect on planetary orbits (which are not 100 % stable, BTW, due to tidal effects and drag from the solar wind); we should really be able to measure that, if expansion is occurring within the Solar System.
So, back to my initial posting: I think we may learn more from the lack of gravity waves than we would if/when we find them.