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Narrator: This is the universe as we

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imagine it...objects floating quietly in space.

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This is the universe as scientists think it actually behaves.

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Objects in space affected ever so slightly by gravitational waves.

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Ripples in space-time caused for example by

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the merger of two black holes. The trick

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is to actually measure these gravitational ripples and to do that

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you need a remarkably precise measuring instrument.

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You need an atom interferometer. Babak Saif: Gravitational wave detection,

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this new carrier would allow us to go

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way further back in time and we're looking at the Big Bang,

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and it really increases our knowledge of cosmology. Narrator: Theory says these

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ripples form when big objects like galaxies and stars move in the

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universe. Long since predicted by Einstein's general theory of

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relativity, they've never been directly detected. Optical

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interferometry--that is visible light measurements--could do the job, but

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previous mission concepts were very expensive. A ground

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based observatory called advanced LIGO may one day detect

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gravity waves. So why atom interferometry?

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Mind-boggling precision, by blasting rubidium atoms

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with carefully calibrated lasers to super-chill them right above absolute

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zero, a change in position of so much as a trillionth of a

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meter--a picometer--will show up, thus adding

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evidence to the theory. So: cutting edge science

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or whiz-bang technology? Both, it turns out.

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Atom interferometry may be the best way to probe some of the most

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essential questions in astrophysics. But the new tools

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being built by The Goddard Space Flight Center and Stanford University will have

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other applications, too. For example, they could more precisely

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track speed, orientation, and inertial changes in one of these...

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or help NASA scientists figure out what asteroid