The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) unveiled a newly developed prototype of a telescope.

About LISA

• It will be the first space-based observatory dedicated to studying gravitational waves in outer space. 
• The telescope was built as part of a joint mission with the European Space Agency (NSA) called Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).

Objective of the LISA mission:  To study gravitational waves by putting three spacecrafts into the Earth’s orbit and positioning them in a triangular format with 1.6 million miles on each side.

Composition

• Each of the three spacecraft will carry two telescopes to detect infrared laser beams from the other spacecraft. 
• Researchers expect to detect a gravitational wave when one of the three spacecraft alter their characteristic pattern.
• “The primary mirror is coated in gold to better reflect the infrared lasers and to reduce heat loss from a surface exposed to cold space since the telescope will operate best when close to room temperature,”

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Significance

• It will help to understand the universe and less-explored phenomena such as black holes and the Big Bang that may not be easy to analyse using other tools.

What are gravitational waves?

• First discovered by Albert Einstein in 1916.
• Definition: Gravitational Waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time emitted during the most powerful events in the Universe, such as pairs of black holes coming together and merging.
• In 2016, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration comprising National Science Foundation, Caltech, and MIT researchers detected the first gravitational waves ever, proving Einstein’s theory right.

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