AM Archive - Saturday, 11 March , 2000 00:00:00
Reporter: Adrienne Lowth
COMPERE: Have you ever wondered what the big bang which marked the beginning of the universe 10 billion years ago actually sounded like? Well, scientists in Western Australia are set to play a key role in trying to find out. As Adrienne Lowth reports, they've established a new observatory north of Perth to help detect gravitational waves which will one day allow scientists to listen to the dawn of time.
ADRIENNE LOWTH: Much of what takes place in the universe, such as falling stars and colliding objects, cannot be heard. And as Professor David Blair from the University of Western Australian explains, it's made studying the universe rather dull.
DAVID BLAIR: I look at the universe like it's a forest - a forest with trees and which are like the big galaxies out there and flowers and all sorts of exciting things. But - and then think about what it would be like in a forest if you can't listen, if you can't hear - if you can't hear the birds calling, you can't hear the wind in the trees. Well, we can't hear the universe. And gravity waves is a means by which we can listen to the universe.
ADRIENNE LOWTH: Playing a significant role in detecting those all-important gravity waves will be the new gravitational observatory which has just opened at Gingin 80 kilometres north of Perth. It's the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and Professor Blair says it will be able to link up with observatories around the world to achieve a scientific dream.
DAVID BLAIR: What it means is that we are going to be part of this worldwide network of gravitational wave detectors, and the gravitational wave detectors are going to allow us for the first time to make a gravity wave telescope that lets us listen to the universe.
ADRIENNE LOWTH: And what do the scientists think they'll be able to hear?
Professor Blair has some ideas.
DAVID BLAIR: We believe that we can look right back to the first moments of creation, so we're going to hear the moment of the big bang when the universe was formed about 10 billion years ago. We're going to hear - we have a lot of ideas of the things it will be able to hear. For example we'll be able to hear a pair of stars spiralling together and making a sound a bit like this [whistling sound]. And so we expect to hear sounds like that, a bit like bird calls. And we expect to hear sounds a bit like a police siren as a [siren sound], and that'll be from rapidly rotating stars going around each other. So all those sounds are out there we believe. Our calculations, our computers tell us that these sounds are out there, but we are deaf to it. So we are trying to make bionic ears for the human race so that we can listen to the sounds of the universe.
COMPERE: Not like a big bang at all is it! That's Professor David Blair in Perth with Adrienne Lowth.