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I just think that if there were a wave detector the size of a galaxy I'd have probably seen it by now, right?
by tengbretson 6y ago
I just think that if there were a wave detector the size of a galaxy I'd have probably seen it by now, right?
- ccapo 6y agoThe detector could just be the entire galaxy, it doesn't have to be an artificial construct. To your question, you have already seen it, hiding in plain sight.
- morpheos137 6y agoWriting copy in the English language is a dying art.
- TeMPOraL 6y agoSimilarly to a Sun-sized lens, which is... the Sun (and the lensing is gravitational).
- michael_j_ward 6y agoPersonally, i found this hilarious, so I don't understand why you're being downvoted
- tengbretson 6y agoThey don't all land, I guess.
- andrewflnr 6y agoWe do get people that stupid here occasionally, so I didn't read it as a joke. Poe's law, etc. Ed: FWIW, I didn't downvote.
- _underfl0w_ 6y agoDidn't downvote so can't be 100% certain, but it may be related to the fact that this isn't Reddit.
- CyanBird 6y agoBecause that's how websites die
- jshevek 6y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- mhh__ 6y agoSpace is awfully big though - the actual structure presumably would be detectable with hindsight but these galaxies are an unbelievably long way away and a detector would presumably be thin on that scale.
- titanomachy 6y agoI believe you misinterpret the article. Physicists on earth are using small timing fluctuations in the radiation arriving from multiple far-flung pulsars to try and detect gravitational waves. This is what is meant by a galaxy-sized gravitational wave detector.
- spekcular 6y agoIt was a joke.
- btilly 6y agoYes, it was. And that is a reason to downvote. People aren't on Hacker News for the jokes, and a significant fraction don't like seeing threads hijacked by silliness. We've all seen Reddit, and are choosing not to be there for a reason. That's not to say that you can't get away with jokes here. But the bar for them to work is very high.
- jshevek 6y agoYou are correct, and this is important. The flood of 2020 newcomers have not acculturated, creating frequent misapprehensions.
- sunstone 6y agoWe are not amused.