An Upgrade Helps to Look for Gravitational Waves

A newly-improved Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory began generating data this year, after a $200 million upgrade. Physicists at Advanced LIGO are searching for gravitational waves. These reverberations may flow through and all around us, as the repercussions of violent cosmic drama—exploding supernovae for instance or colliding black holes—as predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The two US LIGO detectors, operate in concert out Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana and are partnered with similar observatories around the world in the hopes that any signals they spot can be verified.