Essay Physics

The long road to detecting gravity waves

News from Advanced LIGO means that Einstein’s theory can take us farther back than even he imagined

LISTENING FOR GRAVITY WAVES  Two stainless steel tubes, 4 kilometers long, house laser beams and mirrors to detect waves from space at the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory site in Livingston, La. Researchers with Advanced LIGO announced February 11 that they have directly observed gravitational waves.

LIGO Laboratory

By Marcia Bartusiak

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