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Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory
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The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves. Prior to LIGO, all data about the universe has come in the form of light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation, from limited direct exploration on relatively nearby Solar System objects such as the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and their moons, asteroids etc, and from high energy cosmic particles. Initially, two large observatories were built in the United States with the aim of detecting gravitational waves by laser interferometr
OverviewAI-generated
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, abbreviated as LIGO, is a facility located in Pasadena, United States. It is operated by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which was established in 2002 and is currently active. The observatory entered service on August 23, 2002. Its physical length is 4000, and it has a sensitivity range with a minimum wavelength of 43 and a maximum wavelength of 10000.
The organization maintains an official website and has 112188 social media followers. The subject is referenced by 715 other encyclopedia articles.
Synthesized by Vinony from 23 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, Firecrawl, ROR, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Telescope.coords
- LIGO Hanford Observatory: LIGO Livingston Observatory:
- Telescope.locmapin
- no
- Telescope.location
- Hanford Site, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, US
via Wikipedia infobox
Research organization · ROR
- Type
- Facility
- Founded
- 2002
- Location
- Pasadena, United States
- Also known as
- LIGO
- Status
- Active
GRID grid.440318.a
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- organization
- Country
- United States
- Located in
- Hanford
- Founded by
- Ronald Drever
- Operator
- LIGO Scientific Collaboration
- Location
- Livingston
- Official website
- www.ligo.caltech.edu
- Image
- LLO Control Room.jpg
- Length
- 4000
Show 9 more facts
- service entry
- 2002-08-23
- described at URL
- www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/science/ligo-gravitational-waves-black-holes-einstein.html
- Commons category
- LIGO
- has goal
- detection
- short name
- LIGWO
- minimum wavelength of sensitivity
- 43
- maximum wavelength of sensitivity
- 10000
- social media followers
- 112188
- native label
- Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
Sources (7)
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
21 sectionsContents
- History
- Background
- Observations begin
- Detections
- Mission
- Observatories
- Operation
- Noise
- Observations
- Enhanced LIGO
- Advanced LIGO
- Future
- LIGO-India
- A+
- LIGO Voyager
- Cosmic Explorer
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves. Prior to LIGO, all data about the universe has come in the form of light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation, from limited direct exploration on relatively nearby Solar System objects such as the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and their moons, asteroids etc, and from high energy cosmic particles. Initially, two large observatories were built in the United States with the aim of detecting gravitational waves by laser interferometry. Two additional, smaller gravitational wave observatories are now operational in Japan (KAGRA) and Italy (Virgo). The two LIGO observatories use mirrors spaced apart to measure changes in length—over an effective span of —of less than one ten-thousandth the charge diameter of a proton.
The initial LIGO observatories were funded by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF). They were conceived, built, and are operated by Caltech and MIT. They collected data from 2002 to 2010, but no gravitational waves were detected during that period.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Gallery (23)
On the map
12 mapped locations