Scientists have built advanced technology to hunt the universe for gravitational waves, a phenomenon first theorized by Albert Einstein. So far, finding these waves has eluded scientists, but they now have a super scanner in their arsenal.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has gotten a $200 million dollar upgrade that took a long five years to complete. The reboot, called Advanced LIGO, has two detectors in remotes areas of Washington and Louisiana. The project team is based at Caltech, MIT, and at the two observatory sites.
LIGO Laboratory Chief Engineer, Dennis Coyne said in news statement about Friday morning’s unveiling of the revamped technology:
“It is deeply satisfying to realize that the hard work of so many talented scientists and engineers has finally come to fruition after two decades of concerted effort. I hope that nature rewards us!”
According to general relativity theory, gravitation originates from the interaction between massive objects and the malleable fabric of space-time. Einstein predicted that massive cataclysms such as colliding neutron stars or black holes would disturb that fabric and produce gravitational ripples that spread throughout the universe.
LIGO scientists believe that it’s a matter of time when they will detect the first gravitational waves ever. Not only did the scientists think there’s a good chance, but they actually calculated the probability. The scientists predict a one in three chance that Advanced LIGO will pick up its first waves in the next three months.
“The first detections will be quite dramatic for us,”MIT physicist and LIGO cofounder Rainer Weiss told Nature.“The first thing we will need to sort out is whether we truly believe what we are seeing.”
Advanced LIGO is already more sensitive, but there’s further refinement ahead. At its best, the scanner will easily able to spot a cosmic ripple over 326 million light years away.
