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"Blind Injection" Stress-Tests LIGO and VIRGO's Search for Gravitational Waves!
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo completed an end-to-end system test of their detection capabilities at their recent joint collaboration meeting in Arcadia, CA. Analysis of data from LIGO and Virgo's most recent observing run revealed evidence of the elusive signal from a neutron star spiraling into a black hole. Shortly after the collaboration approved a scientific paper reporting the ground-breaking discovery, LIGO and Virgo management revealed that the signal was a "blind injection"---a fake signal secretly added to the data to test the detector and analysis. While the scientists were disappointed that the discovery was not real, the success of the analysis was a compelling demonstration of the collaboration's readiness to detect gravitational waves. LIGO and Virgo scientists are looking forward to observations with the Advanced detectors which are expected to contain many real signals from the distant reaches of the universe.
Read more about the blind injection...
Reports on Progress in Physics chooses an LSC paper as one of highlights of 2009
"LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory" is on the journal's Highlights of 2009 list.
LSC paper among NJP's "Best of 2009"
"Observation of a kilogram-scale oscillator near its quantum ground state" has been selected as one of the highlights of 2009 by New Journal of Physics.
LIGO Begins Joint Observing with the NASA Swift Satellite and with the TAROT and QUEST Wide-Field Optical Telescopes
On December 20, 2009, LIGO and Virgo began working with three telescopes - the NASA Swift satellite observatory, Télescopes à Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires (TAROT), and Project QUEST - to conduct searches for simultaneous gravitational wave and electromagnetic emissions from astrophysical events such as supernovae and gamma ray bursts.
The two LIGO interferometers and the Virgo interferometer analyze date to rapidly identify and triangulate possible gravitational wave candidates. The position is sent to Swift, TAROT and QUEST, which then rapidly point their telescopes toward the source location to perform follow-up X-ray observations (in the case of Swift) or optical follow-ups (for TAROT and QUEST). The observation of a gravitational wave signal together with an associated electromagnetic signal can provide a significant amount of information about the astrophysics of potential sources, for example, short hard gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) or galactic supernova. While gravitational waves have not yet been detected, the simultaneous observation of a strong gravitational wave signal together with an electromagnetic signal would provide compelling evidence for the first detection. These searches are a new way of doing gravitational wave astronomy and point the way toward the future in which gravitational wave observatories play an important role in future astronomical observations. In addition to Swift, TAROT, and QUEST, the LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations are developing agreements with other wide field optical telescopes as well as with radio telescopes and neutrino detectors to search for correlated gravitational wave astrophysical phenomena.
The NASA Swift observatory is a low earth orbit satellite whose primary mission is to investigate gamma ray bursts. Télescopes à Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires (TAROT) operates wide-field telescopes in France and Chile and is managed by the Observatoire de Haute Provence, France. The QUEST project uses a 10 square degree camera on the ESO Schmidt telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, and is a collaboration between Yale University, Indiana University, and Berkeley.
Astronomy's Messengers comes to universities in the southeastern US
In keeping with LIGO's continuing mission to educate the public of its activities, "Astronomy's Messengers: listening to the universe with gravitational waves", a touring exhibit developed by LSC scientists in conjunction with Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership is traveling in the southeastern United States. More about the exhibit including tour dates, photos, and locations.
Editorial Board of Classical and Quantum Gravity picks LIGO-GEO 600 paper among journal's 2009 highlights
At their annual meeting in June 2009, the Editorial Board of Classical and Quantum Gravity nominated a LIGO-GEO 600 paper as a highlight of the journal's 2009 publications. See the complete list of 2009 highlights.
The NASA Swift Observatory
The NASA Swift observatory is a low earth orbit satellite whose primary mission is to investigate gamma ray bursts. Swift is working with LIGO and Virgo performing target of opportunity observations using data from the LIGO and Virgo instruments to search for possible gravitational wave sources.