Advanced LIGO Takes Us One Step Closer to Einstein's Gravitational Waves

With the hope that it would detect gravitational waves soon, researchers dedicated the advanced LIGO in the US at an inaugural ceremony.

LIGO or Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatories are two 4-km long vacuum tunnels, one in Louisiana and other in Washington, connected in an 'L' configuration. Laser is made to travel in these tunnels and is reflected with mirrors at the ends. The underlying principle that helps detect the waves is that changes to laser's travel path up on reflection could be caused by gravitational waves.

The advanced facility which was dedicated on Tuesday is the more sensitive version of a previously existing LIGO. The advanced LIGO facility is 10 times more sensitive.

Gravitational waves are waves in space and time, produced during violent events like supernovae and black hole mergers. Scientists have been able to see effects of gravitational waves in distant cosmic systems, but have not measured them directly.

LIGO can help researchers detect waves generated 200 million light years away. Extreme cosmic events are expected to take place towards the end of this year, when researchers hope to be able to detect waves.

"In much the same way that radio astronomy added another dimension to how scientists could observe celestial phenomena, Advanced LIGO also offers yet another, different perspective. We have found that each time we open a new window of observation, we are able to make discoveries that lead us to a new frontier," said Denise Caldwell, NSF division director for physics.