Laser Interferometer Lunar Antenna: a Sub-Hertz GW Detector on the Moon

Speaker

Volker Quetschke, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Abstract

The moon offers unique opportunities and challenges to realize interferometric gravitational wave detectors that are sensitive over a range of frequencies that are currently not covered. Compared with Earth-based detectors, the moon’s reduced gravity and lower seismic activity allow us to shift the sensitivity to lower frequencies.

An update on the Laser Interferometer Lunar Antenna (LILA) project—a next generation gravitational-wave detector on the surface of the Moon—will be presented. The LILA detector will have unique access to sub-Hertz frequencies of gravitational waves. This frequency range of waves cannot be measured by any ongoing or upcoming experiment on the Earth or in space, thus fundamentally changing the landscape of multi-messenger astrophysics that otherwise cannot be achieved. LILA will provide early warnings prior to mergers of black holes and neutron stars. Measurements in the deci-Hertz regime can vastly improve measurements of the Hubble constant, the equation of state of neutron stars, and tests of General Relativity. Furthermore, LILA will uniquely observe phenomena like white dwarf mergers as Type Ia supernovae progenitors, tidal disruption around intermediate mass black holes, and novel dark matter probes.

A preliminary design for the LILA project and the planned future development stages will be shown: the LILA Autonomous Interferometry Technology Demonstration (LILA-AITD), the Initial LILA (iLILA) strainmeter and the full, operational LILA Observatory.

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The post GW SIG Seminar, 29 June 2026 appeared first on NASA Science.

Why and Where Do We Want to Put Telescopes on the Moon?

Speaker

Nivedita Mahesh, CU Boulder

Abstract

The Moon is emerging as a uniquely valuable platform for astrophysics, enabling observations that neither Earth nor free-flying spacecraft can support. This talk surveys the scientific motivation across four complementary regimes. At low radio frequencies, the radio-quiet lunar farside opens a window onto the cosmological Dark Ages and the magnetospheres of exoplanets. In the mid-band gravitational-wave regime, the Moon’s low seismic activity bridges the sensitivity gap between terrestrial and space-based detectors. At ultraviolet wavelengths, its natural vacuum and long coherence times allow high-resolution stellar imaging beyond what is possible on Earth. And in the far-infrared, the cold, stable conditions of permanently shadowed regions offer a naturally cryogenic, absorption-free site for probing star and planet formation and the obscured Universe.

For each regime, I will share updates from the mission concept leads on the efforts now developing within the Astrophysics from the Moon, Mars & Beyond (AMMB) Science Interest Group. Together, these cases point to a paradigm shift: astrophysics from the Moon is becoming not just desirable but necessary.

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The post AMMB STIG Seminar, 1 July 2026 appeared first on NASA Science.

Constraints on Dynamical Dark Energy from the Full Dark Energy Survey

Speaker

Sujeong Lee, Ohio University

Abstract

The nature of dark energy remains one of the central open questions in cosmology, and recent analyses have reported a weak but intriguing preference for an evolving equation of state. I will present constraints on the w0-wa parameterization from the full six-year Dark Energy Survey (DES) dataset, combining growth and geometric probes — supernovae, BAO, and weak lensing and galaxy clustering (3x2pt) — within a single survey. The DES-only combination yields the tightest such constraints using multiple probes from any single survey, and adding external CMB and DESI BAO data gives a 3.0-sigma deviation from a cosmological constant, with the best-fit always favoring w0 > -1, wa < 0. Because DES relies on different probes and systematics than DESI, this provides an independent cross-check on the recent hints for dynamical dark energy. I will discuss how to interpret these results, and what they imply for Stage IV surveys. This work realizes the multi-probe dark energy program envisioned at the inception of DES.

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The post Cosmic Structure SIG Seminar, 17 July 2026 appeared first on NASA Science.

Lucid Motors is laying off 18% of its workforce, roughly 1,500 employees, just four months after the EV maker cut 12% of its staff. The company also confirmed Monday that it has eliminated the second production shift at its Casa Grande, Arizona factory.

It’s the second mass layoff under a new leadership regime that is barely three weeks old, and it lands as the US EV market cools and automakers retreat from their electric plans.