Editing MiniGrail (section)

{{Infobox telescope}}
'''MiniGRAIL''' was a third-generation [[Gravitational-wave_observatory#Resonant_mass_antennas|resonant mass antenna]],<ref name="A First Course in General Relativity">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/firstcourseingen00bern_0/page/214 | title=A First Course in General Relativity | publisher=Cambridge | author=Schutz , Bernard | pages=[https://archive.org/details/firstcourseingen00bern_0/page/214 214–220] | isbn=978-0521887052 | edition=2nd | date=2009-05-14 | url-access=registration }}</ref> a massive sphere designed to detect [[gravitational wave]]s. The MiniGRAIL was the first such detector to use a spherical design. It is located at [[Leiden University]] in the [[Netherlands]]. The project was managed by the [[Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory]].<ref name="cqg20">{{cite journal
  | author=de Waard, A |display-authors=etal 
  | title=MiniGRAIL, the first spherical detector
  | date=2003 | journal=Classical and Quantum Gravity
  | volume=20 | issue=10 
  | pages=S143–S151
  | doi=10.1088/0264-9381/20/10/317 |bibcode = 2003CQGra..20S.143D |s2cid=250902916 
 }}</ref> A team from the Department of Theoretical Physics of the [[University of Geneva]], [[Switzerland]], was also heavily involved. The project was terminated in 2005.

Gravitational waves are a type of radiation that is emitted by objects that have mass and are undergoing acceleration. The strongest sources of gravitational waves are suspected to be [[compact object]]s such as [[neutron star]]s and [[black hole]]s. This detector may be able to detect certain types of instabilities in rotating single and binary neutron stars, and the merger of small black holes or neutron stars.<ref name="Houwelingen02">{{cite web
  | first=Jeroen | last=Van Houwelingen | date=2002-06-24
  | title=Development of a superconducting thin-film Nb-coil for use in the MiniGRAIL transducers
  | publisher=[[Leiden University]] | pages=1–17
  | url=http://www.minigrail.nl/Student/Jeroen-report.pdf
  | accessdate=2009-09-16 }}</ref>