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LIGO sensitivity compared with the human eye
Recently in another newsgroup (nl.wetenschap) the question
came up of LIGO's sensitivity compared to the human eye. a) LIGO can (easily) see a source at one billion light years distance which emits the energy of 3 solar masses in 1 second (like the black hole mergers!) b) The eye can (also quite easily) see a source at 10 lightyears distance emitting the energy of 0.1 solar mass in 10 billion years (like some of the sun-like nearby stars, burning 10% mass in their entire lifetime). Comparing the energy flux received: - In case a) source power (energy per second) is 1e19 x higher. - 1/r^2 attenuation with distance is 1e16 x larger for a). So it seems that LIGO receives 1000 times stronger energy flux and therefore the eye is 1000 times more sensitive than LIGO. Still, since we are playing with many orders of magnitude here, the difference is remarkably small. Also the cases compared are not the absolute sensitivity levels of the two systems, both LIGO and the eye can see somewhat weaker signals. So the simple estimate here might not completely settle it. Should anything be adjusted in the comparison above? (And if not, when will LIGO's successors surpass the eye?) -- Jos |
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