As reported by Ukrinform, this was reported by NHK.

Located in Gifu Prefecture in central Japan, the KAGRA telescope is designed to detect tiny distortions in space and time created by massive events such as merging black holes or neutron stars.

The state-sponsored KAGRA project, which costs around $130 million at current exchange rates, failed to detect gravitational waves in its first observations in 2020.

According to Kajita Takaaki, the institute director and Nobel laureate in physics, the coronavirus pandemic has prevented the team from making enough adjustments to increase the telescope’s sensitivity. He added that the project participants will make new observations in May for the first time in three years.

The team aims to detect gravitational waves during the planned 18-month observation period by collaborating with international organizations that are experts in their fields.

The researchers hope to achieve a tenfold increase in the telescope’s sensitivity by next spring.

Due to the delay of the project, which was planned to be completed at the end of March, due to the pandemic, the government allowed the project to be extended for two years.

As reported by Ukrinform, researchers from Peking University (China) noted that the Earth’s inner core stopped spinning in the same direction as the planet itself, and perhaps even began to spin in the other direction.

Photo: NASA