This means LIGO would be able to detect gravitational waves even from merging neutron stars that are about 4 megaparsecs ...

As LIGO's sensitivity becomes better and better, and as more detectors come online, our capabilities allow us to detect more of these waves, and the cataclysmic events that generate them, ...

LIGO changed that. Last year, the collaboration announced that its twin detectors had picked up a passing distortion in late 2015 caused by two black holes crashing into each other.

For decades, scientists have believed there should be black holes that fall between two well-known types. On one end are ...

Since then, LIGO has detected hundreds of events, including black holes merging and neutron stars colliding. The Hanford site continues to refine its tools and push science forward.

The LIGO detectors in the states were meant to be joined by a third, the Virgo detector, which is located near Pisa, Italy. However, that detector wasn’t ready to go operational, ...

LIGO is based on mirrors separated by kilometers reflecting laser beams back and forth multiple times. And those laser beams are composed of photons that obey the rules of quantum mechanics.

LIGO detected the first-ever confirmed gravitational waves in 2016. Around the same time, its operators were thinking about ways to weed out the quantum disturbances.

LIGO researchers are particularly excited for the new upgrade, however, because this pushes the instrument beyond what is called the "quantum limit" — a first for a gravitational wave detector.

Cities, the Vera C. Rubin and LIGO observatories reveal cosmic secrets, one capturing light and the other listening for the ...

LIGO can only see the most powerful of these—caused by very massive objects undergoing extreme acceleration—and those only within a certain frequency range. Still, it’s worth asking what ...