LIGO Lab | Caltech | MIT

Hanford Observatory | Livingston Observatory | LIGO MIT

Slides

LIGO and Virgo make first detection of gravitational waves produced by colliding neutron stars

Press release • October 16, 2017

For the first time, scientists have directly detected gravitational waves — ripples in space and time — in addition to light from the spectacular collision of two neutron stars. This marks the first time that a cosmic event has been viewed in both gravitational waves and light.
Nobel Prize awarded to LIGO Founders

News Release • October 3, 2017

LIGO co-founders Barry C. Barish, Kip S. Thorne, and Rainer Weiss win the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger observed by LIGO and Virgo

News Release • September 27, 2017

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo collaboration report the first joint detection of gravitational waves with both the LIGO and Virgo detectors. This is the fourth announced detection of a binary black hole system and the first significant gravitational-wave signal recorded by the Virgo detector, and highlights the scientific potential of a three-detector network of gravitational-wave detectors.
LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves

Detection Portal • February 11, 2016

On September 14, 2015 at 5:51 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (09:51 UTC), the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, USA both measured ripples in the fabric of spacetime – gravitational waves – arriving at the Earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. The new Advanced LIGO detectors had just been brought into operation for their first observing run when the very clear and strong signal was captured.
What are gravitational waves? Why are we looking for them? How does it affect us? Virtual Tour

News

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LIGO Prepares for Third Observing Run

News Release • September 21, 2018

Staff at LIGO Hanford and Livingston are hard at work finishing critical upgrades and preparing for the start of LIGO's third observing run, O3, scheduled to begin sometime early 2019.

Headlines

LIGO Laboratory Announces The Award for Excellence in Detector Characterization and Calibration

News Release • September 14, 2018

Jocelyn Bell Burnell Receives Breakthrough Prize

News Release • September 10, 2018

C.E.K. Mees Medal awarded to Stanley Whitcomb

News Release • August 20, 2018

LIGO Celebrates One-Year Anniversary of Historic Binary Neutron Star Merger Detection

News Release • August 17, 2018

LIGO Congratulates IceCube on Multimessenger Astronomy Success

News Release • July 16, 2018