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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, 10:34 PM posted to sci.astro
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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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