LIGO at Hanford, Washington

LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, consists of two widely-separated interferometers within the United States — one in Hanford, Washington and the other in Livingston, Louisiana — operated in unison to detect gravitational waves. Here the Hanford facility is seen. LIGO was designed to open the field of gravitational-wave astrophysics through the direct detection of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. The multi-kilometer-scale gravitational wave detectors use laser interferometry to measure the minute ripples in space-time caused by passing gravitational waves from cataclysmic cosmic events such as colliding neutron stars or black holes, or by supernovae.

Credit:

NOIRLab/LIGO/NSF/AURA/T. Matsopoulos

About the Image

Id:LIGO_Pic_12-CC
Type:Photographic
Release date:Dec. 29, 2023, 3:27 p.m.
Size:6960 x 3585 px

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