Gravitational Waves

Dual Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observation Station (LIGO) Observatory works together to find elusive phenomena called gravitational waves. As Einstein's general relativity predicts, gravitational waves occur when large objects such as black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs merge. In February, the LIGO team first discovered the gravitational wave observed on September 14, 2015, due to the two merging black holes. You may have recently seen the news that the La Cirea Observatory has completed the work of finding a nearby planet Centauri b near the outer surface using a high precision radial velocity planetary finder (HARPS). Proxima b runs around our nearest neighbor.

In 2015, scientists first detected gravitational waves. They used very sensitive equipment called LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatories). These first gravitational waves occur when two black holes collide with each other. The collision occurred 1.3 billion years ago. But the earth does not arrive until 2015! When gravity waves pass through the earth it compresses and expands the space. LIGO can detect this extrusion and elongation. Each LIGO Observatory has two "weapons" of two miles (4 kilometers) or more in length. The passing gravitational wave slightly changes the length of the arm. The observatory uses lasers, mirrors, and highly sensitive instruments to detect these small changes.

Laser interferometer The gravitational wave observatory (LIGO) is a facility dedicated to detecting gravitational waves of the universe and using these waves for scientific research. It is made up of two separate facilities in the US - one is moving as a day - in Hanford Washington and Livingston, Louisiana -. Virgo 's gravity wave detector consists of a Michelson laser interferometer consisting mainly of two orthogonal arms. Every 3 kilometers. Multiple reflections between mirrors at the ends of each arm extend the effective optical length of each arm to 120 kilometers. Virgo is in the European Gravity Observatory, EGO in Cascina, near Pisa in the Arno River Plain. Virgo frequency ranges from 10 to 6,000 Hz