LIGO Gravitational Wave Observatory

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory is spearheading the completely new field of gravitational wave astronomy and opening a whole new window on the universe. LIGO's exquisitely sensitive instruments may ultimately take us farther back in time than we've ever been, catching, perhaps, the first murmurs of the universe in formation.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[raybanfandom]

All caps does not give you an extra inch of authority.

[Jeffery Krueger]

Great experiment , Now we know one way not to detect gravity waves.

[jptough]

Why don't they just use the new Creative Physics 5.0 to simulate it in 3D? The developer of the software lives 2 miles away from LIGO. Dr. Ben Stewart. :-)

[blabla8764]

Gravitywaves do NOT exist > also explainable by einstein E=mC2 and HOW matter and in which way and at what percentage that can anihilate. Not even hawking anihilation at black holes give gravitywaves.Sorry for wrecking your adventure!

[biokant]

Therefore, LIGO (and LISA) are really amazing and inspiring news for a new dawning era in cosmology, physics and maybe even a theory of everything. Thank You!

[biokant]

How amazing that a technology based on such a simple principle, an interferometer (like the one used in the Michelson–Morley experiment) could unlock the most important and difficult questions of our time. It is not just gravitational waves, if this machine is sensitive enough, it could actually probe into the fabric of space-time itself and tell us what is its real nature really. Do you realize the importance of this discovery? If you know what space is, you will know what dark energy can be.

[GrandpappyLuke]

Tides? Tides are caused by simple gravitational attraction. It's not the same thing.

[GrowlingVocals]

in my understanding, gravitational waves "alter time" in such a sense that they simply increase distance between particles in a body by stretching space itself but what then does that space itself consist of?

[randy kubick]

If the distance between the mirrors decreases from a gravity wave passing through so to does the wave length of the photons bouncing between them. This will net no detectable change. Maybe they should try to measure the gravity wave from our moon because last I heard it cases our oceans to lift several feet every day. Of course this natural gravity wave meter is too obvious.. Taxes payers duped once again.

[MegaBanne]

This one was a failure.

[CACBCCCU]

Afaik, GR's spreading (dynamic) gravitational waves couple wavelength-dependently similar to photons, i.e. a sensor's size-scale (x-section) compares to the wavelength, like with antennas. Imo, quantum gravity replaces GR's gravity wave with flux-density variation. If quantum graviton x-section relates inversely to a non-dynamic wavelength carried, which GR's success/failure constrains to galactic scale, dynamic wave energy doesn't propagate well, especially if retroreflectivity also dominates.

[Brett Jimison]

Correct. Gravitational waves have yet to be detected though.