Besides its extraordinary stealth capabilities, the probe's detection capabilities also left comparable equipment on Earth in the dust. Along with numerous optical sensors far more advanced than Earth's, the most crucial component was a new way of probing the cosmos-gravitational-wave detection!
As we knew, any object with mass could warp spacetime. The greater its mass, the more pronounced the distortion. Around a black hole, for instance, even light could be bent. Force-Field Shields operated on a similar principle.
Gravitational waves were ripples in the fabric of spacetime that propagated outward from a mass source. They transmitted energy as gravitational radiation and traveled at the speed of light. In 1916, Albert Einstein predicted their existence based on the general theory of relativity.
In theory, any object with mass had gravitational waves. The Gemini Civilization's gravitational-wave detection relied on precisely this property to leave every spacecraft and celestial body with nowhere to hide!
In space, conventional short-range detection methods such as ground-based radar were essentially useless across the vast distances involved. Long before you reached their effective detection range, various optical sensors, including infrared detectors, would already have spotted you! Radar's detection range could even fall short of a warship's weapons range!
That was why humanity's current means of detection in space primarily consisted of optical sensors! Or, as they were otherwise known, "lidar"!
However, lidar could be countered with optical stealth technology, while gravitational-wave detection was almost impossible to defeat.
Needless to say, gravitational-wave detection occupied the same position in interstellar warfare that radar did on Earth. Its importance could not be overstated.
The one drawback was that the gravitational-wave detector Nie Yun had obtained was only a small device. Its resolution and performance naturally could not compare with the gravitational-wave detection radar aboard a warship.
To obtain warship-grade gravitational-wave detection