Hunting for ripples from the Big Bang

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau one of 'the best' places to detect gravitational waves

China is building a new facility to detect primordial gravitational waves - tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time that were generated during the birth of the universe.

The facility is located 5,250 meters above sea level in Ngari prefecture, in the western part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where the air is thin and dry-"an ideal place to detect possibly the weakest type of gravitational waves", said Zhang Xinmin, the project's lead scientist.