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LIGO Kicks into High Gear for Gravitational-Wave Search with 18-MonthObservation Run (Forwarded)



 
 
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Old February 27th 06, 10:03 PM posted to sci.space.news
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Default LIGO Kicks into High Gear for Gravitational-Wave Search with 18-MonthObservation Run (Forwarded)

Media Relations
Caltech
Pasadena, California

Contact:
Robert Tindol, (626) 395-3631

February 21, 2006

LIGO Kicks into High Gear for Gravitational-Wave Search with 18-Month
Observation Run

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The quest to detect and study gravitational waves with
the NSF-funded Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)
is now in the fourth month of its first sustained science run since
achieving its promised design sensitivity, project personnel announced at
the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS).

Fully operational since 2005, LIGO is a facility for the detection of
cosmic gravitational waves and for scientific research using those waves
as an astronomical tool for better understanding the cosmos. LIGO operates
observatories at Hanford, Washington, and Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
The project was designed and is operated by the California Institute of
Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with funding from
the National Science Foundation. Research is carried out by the LIGO
Scientific Collaboration, a group of 500 scientists at universities around
the U.S. and in 8 foreign countries.

At a press breakfast on Sunday, February 21, Michael Turner of the
National Science Foundation and Professor Gabriela González of Louisiana
State University discussed recent milestones of the LIGO project. These
include an update on the current status of LIGO, the current 18-month
science run that began in November 2005, and the plan for the next
generation of LIGO.

The breakfast is a sponsored networking and information opportunity for
reporters, and is supported by the National Science Foundation and LIGO.

During the breakfast, NSF will screen its new video production, titled
"Einstein's Messengers," a 20-minute documentary about LIGO. Designed
especially for the general public, the documentary examines how LIGO will
be able to observe the incredibly tiny ripples in space-time that are
gravitational waves, and so open a new window on the universe. Free DVD
copies of the documentary will be available for reporters.

According to Jay Marx, the executive director-designate of LIGO, earlier
science runs have already led to new knowledge about the cosmos, including
limits on the deformation of spinning neutron stars; on the amount of
gravitational radiation emitted by two merging neutron stars, or black
holes; and on remnant gravitation radiation left over from the Big Bang.

Now that the LIGO is sensitive enough to detect changes in distance a mere
thousandth the diameter of a proton, Marx adds, the science return should
be even greater. Recent results from the Swift satellite pinpointing the
location of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have also heightened
astronomers' interest in the results from LIGO's current observational
run.

The current 18-month science run could lead to even more important
discoveries, and if nature is very kind, to the first direct detection of
gravitational radiation since Albert Einstein predicted the phenomenon's
existence in 1916. "This run will allow us to accumulate substantial
amounts of data with the instruments operating at their design
sensitivity, and so should produce many new and interesting insights,"
says Marx, who will also attend the press breakfast.

In addition to serving as a new and unique astrophysical observatory, LIGO
will also be used to delve into the fundamental nature of gravity, hence
serving both the physics and astronomy communities. Also, depending on the
nature of the gravitational background left over from the Big Bang, the
project could eventually allow for an observation of the universe in its
first few milliseconds.

González is an associate professor of physics at LSU, the closest major
research university to the LIGO Livingston facility. She is a founding
member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and has been closely involved
in the commissioning of the Livingston detector, particularly in matters
pertaining to alignment sensing and control.

Her group at LSU has worked on the data-taking science runs, and she is a
co-leader of one of the four data analysis groups in the collaboration.

Turner is an assistant director of the NSF and heads the Mathematical and
Physical Sciences Directorate.

More information about LIGO is available at
http://www.ligo.caltech.edu


 




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