The BlackGEM array, consisting of three new telescopes located at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, has begun operations.
The telescopes will scan the southern sky to hunt down the cosmic events that produce gravitational waves, such as the mergers of neutron stars and black holes.
Observatories like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo Interferometer are designed to detect the gravitational waves, that are ripples in the structure of time and space.
But these observatories cannot pinpoint their origin very accurately nor see the fleeting light that results from the collisions between neutron stars and black holes. BlackGEM is dedicated to quickly scanning large areas of the sky to precisely hunt down gravitational-wave sources using visible light.
Read more at ESO: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2308/