X-ray studies could help make LIGO gravitational wave detector 10 times more sensitive July 20, 2016 Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! This illustration shows how two black holes (black circles at center), spiraling toward each other before merging, send out gravitational waves (blue) that can be detected on Earth with the Advanced LIGO detector. Credit: LIGO/T. Pyle Scientists from Stanford University and the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are using powerful X-rays to study high-performance mirror coatings that could help make the LIGO gravitational wave observatory 10 times more sensitive to cosmic events that ripple space-time. The current version of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, called Advanced LIGO, was the first experiment to directly observe gravitational waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago. In September 2015, it detected a signal coming from two black holes, each about 30 times heavier than the sun, which merged into a single black hole 1.3 billion years ago. The experiment picked up a similar second event in December 2015. "The detection of gravitational waves will fundamentally change our understanding of the universe in years to come," says Riccardo Bassiri, a physical science research associate at Stanford's interdisciplinary Ginzton Laboratory. "Extremely precise mirrors are the heart of LIGO, and their coatings determine the experiment's sensitivity, or ability to measure gravitational waves. So improving those coatings will make future generations of the experiment even more powerful." Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-07-x-ray-ligo-gravitational-detector-sensitive.html#jCp
http://media.slac.stanford.edu/news...tional-wave-detector-10-times-more-sensitive/ Stanford, SLAC X-ray Studies Could Help Make LIGO Gravitational Wave Detector 10 Times More Sensitive:
