The Advanced Laser Gravitational Wave Observatories (LIGO) received an important milestone en route to its first task tentatively for autumn of this year.
According to BBC News, Advanced LIGO represents a historic development in astronomy, as it will enable scientists to look for gravitational ripples in space. Seeing these waves will help astronomers learn more about time and physics in space, as well as major cosmic events.
"Advanced LIGO represents a critically important step forward in our continuing effort to understand the extraordinary mysteries of our universe," France A. Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), said in a press release. "It gives scientists a highly sophisticated instrument for detecting gravitational waves, which we believe carry with them information about their dynamic origins and about the nature of gravity that cannot be obtained by conventional astronomical tools."
Advanced LIGO is a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology. The NSF dedicated the observatory at the Hanford facility in Richland, Wash. on Tuesday.
The initial LIGO was first proposed some 30 years ago to detect physical evidence relating to Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. The Advanced LIGO dramatically enhances the instrument's sensitivity.
"We have a standard measure to track the improving performance of the detectors as they are commissioned, and in round numbers both detectors are now operating with a range close to 200 million light-years," Great Britain's Advanced LIGO team principal investigator Ken Strain, deputy director of the Institute for Gravitational Research at the University of Glasgow, told BBC News. "So, a truly phenomenal distance, and within that volume there are very many galaxies, and if an event takes place in one of those galaxies when the detectors are online - which they will be increasingly towards the end of the year - it should be seen."
