Chinese scientists have developed the optical core for a large space-based gravitational wave detector, a significant step forward for the Taiji project aimed at listening to the universe.

In the sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem, humans build “gravitational wave antennas” to broadcast to the cosmos. Now, Chinese scientists have made a step forward in turning that idea into hardware – only in reverse. Science and Technology Daily reported on Saturday that a team from the Institute of Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences had developed the optical core of a giant space detector to listen to the universe. The detector is part of a space-based gravitational wave project...