Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Project
Recently land was handed over for the first Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project in India.
- Hingoli Revenue Department (Maharashtra) has handed over the land for setting up the laboratory along with some other related infrastructure under Project 100.
- In the year 2016, the central government approved LIGO-India (a joint Indo-US detector) for research on gravitational waves (GW).
- The project will be built by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology. LOGO is a massive observatory for detecting cosmic gravitational waves and conducting experiments on many areas of physics including gravity, relativity, astrophysics, etc.
- It is being operated at two sites in the US (Washington and Louisiana).
Significance of the LIGO-India Project
- This will enable scientists to detect GW sources across space.
- It will increase the prospects and attractiveness of applied science in India. At the same time, it will also prove to be helpful in attracting students and motivating them to take up technical career.
- The physical measurements required to detect GW include state-of-the-art techniques, which have many non-military applications.
Gravitational waves are waves generated in space-time, caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe and traveling at the speed of light.
They carry with them information about their cataclysmic origins, as well as invaluable differences in the nature of gravity.
They are formed when –
- The body moves at a very high speed,
- When a star explodes asymmetrically (called a supernova),
- When two massive stars orbit each other,
- When two black holes orbit each other and merge.
Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in his theory of general relativity in the year 1916.
Source – The Hindu
