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How accurate is LIGO?
Most sensitive: At its most sensitive state, LIGO will be able to detect a change in distance between its mirrors 1/10,000th the width of a proton! This is equivalent to measuring the distance to the nearest star (some 4.2 light years away) to an accuracy smaller than the width of a human hair.
What can LIGO detect?
gravitational waves
Though its mission is to detect gravitational waves from some of the most violent and energetic processes in the Universe, the data LIGO collects may have far-reaching effects on many areas of physics including gravitation, relativity, astrophysics, cosmology, particle physics, and nuclear physics.
How is LIGO so sensitive?
Those correlations occur naturally in the light within the LIGO instrument. As it bounces back and forth between the two mirrors, it exerts a force called radiation pressure on the mirrors. This process induces a correlation between the amplitude and phase of the photons that have been inside the instrument.
What frequencies can LIGO detect?
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) consists of two widely separated 4 km laser interferometers designed to detect gravitational waves from distant astrophysical sources in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 10 kHz.
Who funds LIGO?
NSF
LIGO is funded by NSF and operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived of LIGO and led the Initial and Advanced LIGO projects.
How much does LIGO cost?
LIGO has cost American taxpayers about $1.1 billion. That is how much the National Science Foundation has spent on the project over the past 40 years, according to the Times.
What is the basic principle behind LIGO?
Gravitational waves cause space itself to stretch in one direction and simultaneously compress in a perpendicular direction. In LIGO, this causes one arm of the interferometer to get longer while the other gets shorter, then vice versa, back and forth as long as the wave is passing.
Did LIGO get a Nobel Prize?
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three key players in the development and ultimate success of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). One half of the prize was awarded jointly to Caltech’s Barry C. Barish, the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus and Kip S.
How many detections has LIGO?
50 detections
As of December 2019, LIGO has made 3 runs, and made 50 detections of gravitational waves.