The LISA Pathfinder satellite, which is set to pave the way to observe gravitational waves, launched late Wednesday night from Europe's Kourou, French Guiana spaceport, according to Discovery News. Scientists are using the probe in order to test out technology that they hope will lead to the development of devices that can measure the ripples caused by cosmic collisions, such as those created by the merging of two black holes.
"A gravitational wave observatory will measure tides, very small tides, not produced by the moon, but produced by astrophysical objects like black holes in very distant galaxies," said William Weber, a LISA Pathfinder scientist.
If the probe is successful, it will open up an entirely new realm of astronomy that will allow scientists to ditch electromagnetic radiation emission technology and rely on data gained from the fabric of space and time itself. They will be able to detect some of the 96 percent of matter in the universe that is currently undetectable with current telescope technology, according to Al Jazeera America.
"Gravitational waves are changing the distance of points in space," said Oliver Jennrich, the deputy project scientist for the mission. "So if you have two test masses ... and you measure the distance between them very precisely and a gravitational wave passes by, it will change the distance."
Over the next two weeks, the LISA Pathfinder will gradually raise the orbit's highest points over six burns until it reaches its final burn, where it will orbit a stable point in space called L1, located approximately 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth, according to the ESA.
