Italy bets on quietest of places to host world-leading telescope

30/5/2023 19:00

        Italy is proposing a disused mineral mine in a remote corner of Sardinia to house one of the world's most advanced telescopes, hoping that the uncommon stillness of the spot will clinch European Union approval and funds.
        
        The Sos Enathos lead and zinc mine, extending 300 metres underground below lush vegetation, has been picked by the Rome government as its candidate to host the so-called Einstein Telescope (ET).
        
        The breakthrough EU-financed project aims to explore deep space through the study of gravitational waves, and it can only work with when ground vibrations are minimal.
        
        "It will allow us ... to see events very close to when the Big Bang happened" around 14 billion years ago, 2021 Physics Nobel Prize winner Giorgio Parisi told Reuters.