Network Communications News (NCN) May 2016 | Page 15

European Gravitational Observatory

PROJECT FOCUS

Gravitational wave observatories are regularly
upgraded in order to improve their sensitivity.

Gravitational pull

Brand-Rex has been making waves at The European Gravitational Observatory
in Italy by providing the state-of-the-art facility with a new network infrastructure
incorporating fire resistant cable. Michael Crane finds out more.

B

rand-Rex, alongside its
installation partner Cima
Telematica, has recently
provided a cutting edge
network infrastructure solution
for The European Gravitational
Observatory, located near the
historic town of Pisa in central Italy.

Insight
Surrounded by countryside, the
unassuming EGO estate is home to a

huge state-of-the-art interferometer
known as Virgo – two 3km long
perpendicular arms used to detect and
measure gravitational waves, the overall
objective being to offer scientists some
insight into the origin and evolution of
the universe.
Gravitational waves, first identified
by Einstein in 1916, are small distortions
or ripples in space time and are
thought to be generated by massive
cosmic events. Gravitational wave
observatories are at the forefront of

this particular branch of physics and are
regularly upgraded in order to improve
their sensitivity.
Virgo was constructed as part of a
French-Italian collaboration which now
involves 19 laboratories and more than
250 scientists from across France, Italy,
the Netherlands, Poland and Hungary.
It is expected that the interferometer
will eventually be capable of measuring
strains that are smaller than the
dimension of an atom with respect to the
distance between the earth and the sun.
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