Facts for Prelims (FFP)
Source: TH
Context: Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a project to build an advanced gravitational-wave detector in the Hingoli district in Maharashtra. The facility’s construction is expected to be completed by 2030.
What are Gravitational Waves?
Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space and time that travel at the speed of light. They are created by the motion of massive objects, such as black holes or neutron stars, which generate gravitational waves when they orbit or collide with each other.
According to Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, any object with mass warps the space-time around it. When two massive objects orbit each other or collide, they produce ripples or waves in space-time that propagate outward at the speed of light.
Gravitational waves are extremely weak and difficult to detect. They were first directly detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2015, a century after they were predicted by Einstein’s theory.
About LIGO-India
| Location | Hingoli district, Maharashtra, India |
| Built by | Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology with an MoU with the U.S. National Science Foundation |
| Type of facility | Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) |
| Purpose | To detect and study gravitational waves. LIGOs are designed to measure changes in distance that are several orders of magnitude smaller than the length of the proton. |
| Network | Four comparable detectors need to be operating simultaneously around the globe to localise a source of gravitational waves anywhere in the sky.
LIGO-India will be the third of its kind in the world, made to the exact specifications of the twin LIGO, in Louisiana (first) and Washington (second) in the U.S. A fourth detector in Kagra, Japan, will also be made. |
| Construction | It consists of two interferometers, each with two 4 km long arms arranged in the shape of an “L” (acting as ‘antennae’ to detect gravitational waves)
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| Expected benefits | Advances in astronomy, astrophysics, and cutting-edge technology |
