In a first, a team of scientists in the UK have developed a new telescope 'Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)' to track down sources of gravitational waves. The new telescope is made up of two identical arrays deployed on opposite sides of the planet -- one on La Palma in the Canary Islands, and the other in Australia.

It will scour space for optical clues about the violent cosmic events that create ripples, or waves, in the fabric of space itself, said the team from the universities of Warwick and Sheffield. Long hypothesised as a by-product of the collision and merger of cosmic behemoths such as neutron stars and black holes, gravitational waves were finally detected directly by LIGO (Laser Interferometry Gravitational-wave Observatory) in 2015.