Gravitational-wave astronomy

Branch of astronomy using gravitational waves

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We include updates on Kip Thorne, Hanford Site, LIGO, Matched filter, First observation of gravitational waves, Livingston, Louisiana, Nergis Mavalvala, Gabriela González, Rana X. Adhikari, Rainer Weiss, Joseph Weber, Ronald Drever, Gravitational wave background, LIGO Scientific Collaboration, ACIGA, David Reitze ... and more.

March 2025	European Gravitational Observatory Belgian FWO and FNRS joined EGO as full members www.fwo.be
2024	Kip Thorne Awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge. Cambridge confers honorary degrees \| University of Cambridge www.cam.ac.uk Cambridge Categories - Cambridge University www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk
2024	Lisa Barsotti Received the Research.com Best Female Scientist Award for the third consecutive year.
2024	Gabriela González Elected as the vice-president of the American Physical Society.
July 2024	Hanford Site The Department of Energy announced plans to construct a 1 GW solar array at the Hanford Site.
2023	European Gravitational Observatory Institutions from Poland, Spain, and Belgium joined EGO as observers
2023	Kip Thorne Published 'The Warped Side of Our Universe', a book using poetry and illustrations to explain scientific concepts.
2023	Hanford Site Continued environmental cleanup with over 10,000 workers still employed in remediation activities.
2023	Lisa Barsotti Received the Research.com Best Female Scientist Award for the second consecutive year.
2023	Barry Barish Joined Stony Brook University as the inaugural President's Distinguished Endowed Chair in Physics.
2023	Barry Barish Awarded the National Medal of Science by President Biden in a White House ceremony.
2023	Barry Barish Awarded the inaugural Copernicus Prize by the Polish government and the National Medal of Science for groundbreaking research on sub-atomic particles and leadership in gravitational wave detection.
2023	Gravitational-wave observatory IndIGO (LIGO-India) gravitational wave detector was established as part of the second generation of detectors.
2023	Ground-based interferometric gravitational-wave search LIGO-India project received approval from the Indian government for establishing a gravitational-wave detector in Aundha, India, with design support from the LIGO collaboration.
June 2023	Indian Initiative in Gravitational-wave Observations US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi jointly welcomed the commencement of LIGO observatory construction in India.
June 2023	North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves NANOGrav published 15-year data release providing further evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background and a measurement of the Hellings–Downs curve.
June 2023	North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves NANOGrav published further evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background using the 15-year data release, providing a measurement of the Hellings–Downs curve.
June 2023	Gravitational-wave observatory Four pulsar timing array collaborations presented the first strong evidence for a gravitational wave background with wavelengths spanning light years, likely originating from multiple supermassive black hole binaries.
June 28 2023	Gravitational wave background North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves collaboration announced evidence for a Gravitational Wave Background (GWB), with supporting observations from EPTA, Parkes Observatory, and Chinese Pulsar Timing Array (CPTA). This provided the first measurement of the Hellings-Downs curve, a key indicator of gravitational wave origin.
2022	Hanford Site Cocooning of KE and KW Reactors is completed.
2022	Lisa Barsotti Received the Research.com Best Female Scientist Award, recognizing her outstanding scientific contributions.
2022	Rainer Weiss Gave an interview to the Federal University of Pará in Brazil, discussing his life, career, childhood memories, and the future of gravitational waves astronomy.
2022	Nergis Mavalvala Served as Wellesley College's Commencement Speaker, highlighting her academic and professional achievements.
January 2022	Hanford Site Demolition work on the Plutonium Finishing Plant was completed.
2021	Advanced LIGO Documentary Project Planned release of Episodes 10, 11, and 12, which were delayed by the pandemic, with support from MathWorks.
2021	Lisa Barsotti Named one of the InspiringFifty in Italy, acknowledging her influence and impact in the scientific community.
2021	North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves NANOGrav received a second Physics Frontiers Center (PFC) grant from the NSF, further supporting their scientific research and collaboration efforts.
2021	David McClelland Awarded the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal by the Australian Academy of Science for his pioneering work on quantum enhancement of gravitational wave detectors using squeezed states of light.
2021	Cosmic Explorer Released a comprehensive horizon study that established the observatory's vision, developed a reference design, and presented a preliminary cost estimate for the Cosmic Explorer project.
December 2021	Taiji program A scientific study highlighted the potential of the Taiji-LISA gravitational wave detection network to accurately measure the Hubble constant with over 95.5% precision within ten years.
July 2021	Taiji program Taiji-1 satellite completed all preset experimental tasks, achieving the highest precision space laser interferometry in China and the first full performance verification of two micro-push technologies.
June 29 2021	Hanford Site Hanford recorded Washington state's highest temperature, marking a significant climatic event in the region's meteorological history.
April 2021	Hanford Site A potential radioactive leak was reported at the site, continuing the ongoing challenges of cleanup and waste management.
April 2021	Taiji program Chinese Academy of Sciences established the gravitational wave cosmic polar laboratory in Hangzhou.
January 2021	European Gravitational Observatory Nikhef became a full member of the European Gravitational Observatory, expanding the consortium's membership from its original two founding members.
2020	Advanced LIGO Documentary Project Completion of the ongoing YouTube video series, with three additional episodes planned to cover LIGO's third science run.
2020	Hanford Site The Washington Department of Ecology issued the Department of Energy a $1.065 million penalty for restricting direct access to facility data required for regulatory oversight.
2020	North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves NANOGrav presented first evidence of gravitational wave background through 12.5-year data release, though not definitively attributable to gravitational waves.
2020	Livingston, Louisiana United States census documented 1,877 people, 679 households, and 492 families residing in the town.
2020	Gabriela González Elected fellow of the American Astronomical Society, expanding her recognition across scientific disciplines.
2020	North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves NANOGrav presented first evidence of gravitational wave background in the 12.5-year data release, showing noise consistent with gravitational wave expectations.
2020	David McClelland Jointly received the Australian Prime Minister's Prize for Science for his leadership of the Australian contribution to gravitational wave detection.
2020	David McClelland Established the Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics, a joint facility of ANU Research School of Physics and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
2020	Gravitational-wave observatory KAGRA, a highly sensitive interferometric gravitational wave detector, began operations, expanding the global network of gravitational wave observatories.
2020	Rainer Weiss Elected as a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society, recognizing his significant contributions to astronomy.
2020	Ground-based interferometric gravitational-wave search KAGRA (formerly LCGT) became operational as a single interferometric gravitational wave detector with 3 km long arms, located in the Kamioka Observatory in Japan. It is considered a second-generation detector with unique features like being built underground and using cryogenic mirrors.
2020	Ground-based interferometric gravitational-wave search KAGRA gravitational wave detector completed.
September 5 2020	Advanced LIGO Documentary Project Les Guthman published a book titled 'LIGO: A Discovery That Shook the World' on the fifth anniversary of LIGO's historic gravitational wave discovery.
January 2020	Rana X. Adhikari Participated in an exchange with Australian recording artist Tex Crick in Scientific Inquirer, discussing time travel. Additionally, appeared on Y Combinator podcast discussing gravitational wave measurement challenges and on Seeker's The Good, the Bad, and the Science Podcast.
2019	Advanced LIGO Documentary Project Released the remaining five episodes of the documentary series.
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles European Gravitational Observatory, Nergis Mavalvala, Hanford Site, Gravitational-wave observatory, Barry Barish, Gravitational wave background, Gabriela González, Livingston, Louisiana, Indian Initiative in Gravitational-wave Observations, Lisa Barsotti, Rainer Weiss, Rana X. Adhikari, Cosmic Explorer (gravitational wave observatory), Taiji program, David McClelland (physicist), Advanced LIGO Documentary Project, North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves, Ground-based interferometric gravitational-wave search & Kip Thorne, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Gravitational-wave astronomy

See Also

Virgo interferometer

KAGRA

Rainer Weiss