The Mario Schenberg (Gravitational Wave Detector, or Brazilian Graviton Project or Graviton) is a spherical, resonant-mass,
gravitational wave detector
A gravitational-wave detector (used in a gravitational-wave observatory) is any device designed to measure tiny distortions of spacetime called gravitational waves. Since the 1960s, various kinds of gravitational-wave detectors have been built ...
formerly run by the Physics Institute of the
University of São Paulo
The Universidade de São Paulo (, USP) is a public research university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and the largest public university in Brazil.
The university was founded on 25 January 1934, regrouping already existing schools in ...
, named after
Mário Schenberg
Mário Schenberg (born Mayer Schönberg ar. ''Mário Schönberg'', ''Mario Schonberg'', ''Mário Schoenberg'' 2 July 1914 – 10 November 1990) was a Brazilian electrical engineer, physicist, art critic and writer.
Early life
Schenberg was ...
. Similar to the Dutch-run
MiniGrail
MiniGRAIL was a third-generation resonant mass antenna, a massive sphere designed to detect gravitational waves. The MiniGRAIL was the first such detector to use a spherical design. It is located at Leiden University in the Netherlands. The projec ...
, the 1.15 ton, 65 cm diameter spherical test mass is suspended in a cryogenic vacuum enclosure, kept at 20 mK; and the sensors (transducers) for this detector/antenna are developed at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), in Sao José dos Campos, Brazil. As of 2016, the antenna has not detected any gravitational waves, and development of the antenna continues. It has been decided that the antenna will be transferred from the University of São Paulo to INPE.
See also
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List of radio telescopes
This is a list of radio telescopes – over one hundred – that are or have been used for radio astronomy. The list includes both single dishes and interferometric arrays. The list is sorted by region, then by name; unnamed telescopes are in ...
References
{{coord missing, São Paulo (state)
Gravitational-wave telescopes
Astronomical observatories in Brazil