What is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)?
Q: What is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)?
A: LIGO is a large-scale physics observatory which detects cosmic gravitational waves co-founded by Scottish physicist Ronald Drever.
Q: Who funded the original LIGO project?
A: The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the original LIGO project.
Q: How did improvements to LIGO increase its sensitivity?
A: The NSF funded improvements for LIGO to increase its sensitivity, which allowed them to make the first detection of gravitational waves.
Q: What is an interferometer?
A: An interferometer is a device that fires a laser beam and splits it into two laser beams. Mirrors bounce them back towards a light detector and merge them.
Q: How do changes in space-time affect the laser beams in an interferometer?
A: Any changes in space-time caused by gravity waves can change the laser beams, so that they don't cancel out fully. When this happens, the light detector will see some of the laser light, which it can then use to work out the size of the space-time distortion.
Q: What was LIGO's most ambitious project ever funded by NSF?
A: The largest and most ambitious project ever funded by NSF was LIGO.
