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This was the official Twitter of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. We detect gravitational waves!
Email: questions@ligo.org
We are happy to share our latest news and discoveries on several platforms. Please come and find us
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📷 ligo_virgo
📘 LIGO Scientific Collaboration
#SciComm#GravitationalWaves
"Taking care of plants is my way to do hands-on science every day and remember that science is actually part of the real world, it doesn't just exist on your computer."
Find out more about Amanda at #HumansOfLIGO: humansofligo.blogspot.com/20…
ALT A headshot of Amanda smiling in front of a wood panelled wall. Amanda has long dark curly hair with pink highlights, light skin, and is wearing a white blouse with black flowers on it.
The 2025 winner of the LIGO Laboratory Award for Excellence in Detector Characterization & Calibration is Dr. Jane Glanzer in recognizition of critical and timely contributions to both calibration and detector characterization for the fourth observing run
ligo.caltech.edu/WA/news/lig…
We are pleased to announce our discovery of #GW241011 and #GW241110
Both come from binary black holes where one black hole is larger than the other. The larger black holes have large spin. Could these black holes have formed in a previous merger?
ligo.org/science-summaries/G…
ALT Infographic about GW241011 and GW241110
GW241011's source contained black holes about 13 and 8 times the mass of our Sun. The spin of the bigger black hole is high and bear aligned with the orbit.
GW241110's source contained black holes about 17 and 8 times the mass of our Sun. The spin of the larger black hole is high and near anti-aligned with the orbit.
Credit: Shanika Galaudage/Northwestern University/Adler Planetarium
Sad but pleased to release today our homage to LIGO’s wonderful Rai Weiss, who passed away in September at 92. It is Episode 10 of our @LIGO YouTube video series. In our last interview, he insisted that @NSF “is the hero of LIGO.”
piped.video/hsiyG6Y0t4M
Our fourth LIGO @ego_virgo@KAGRA_PR observing run has now drawn to a close. We will be busy analysing data for a while to come—watch out for more discovery announcements.
We will be back next year observing.docs.ligo.org/plan…
Our Rapid Response Teams celebrate the end of our fourth observing run. Well done everyone!
ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20…
O4 was a success thanks to lots of hard work from across the world.
#O4IsHere
ALT In Japan, KAGRA staff gathered in the control room to celebrate the end of O4. This was the first run that KAGRA took science data simultaneously with Virgo and LIGO.
ALT Staff at LIGO Livingston Observatory in Louisiana gathered in the control room to say farewell to O4
ALT In Italy, Virgo staff gathered in the control room to celebrate the end of O4.
ALT Staff at LIGO Hanford Observatory in Washington State gathered in the control room at 8am to celebrate the end of O4. Everyone enjoyed morning coffee and cake.
Our fourth observing run (O4) has seen our detectors perform better than ever before. Together with @ego_virgo and @KAGRA_PR we have identified more gravitational-wave candidates than in all previous observing runs combined
#O4IsHere
ALT A cumulative detection plot, including significant candidate events from O4a, O4b, and O4c.
There were a totla of 3 probable canddiates following O1, 11 following O2, 90 following O3, and 218 following O4a. There were 165 significant candidates in O4b and 68 in O4c. The total is almost 400.
From O1 through O4a, the counts refer to the detected gravitational-wave events that are included in the GWTC papers. In contrast, the counts for O4b and O4c refer to candidate events for which a significant low-latency alert was issued and that were not subsequently retracted.
The O4c data collection period is divided into two segments: January 28 April 1, 2025 and June 11 November 18, 2025. These segments are distinguished in the figure by different fill colors: the first is represented in dark blue, and the second in light blue. The intervening gap is omitted from the figure.
Today marks the end of the fourth observing run of the @LIGO - Virgo - @KAGRA_PR gravitational wave detection network 🎆 It was the longest and richest run ever: 585 days and 250+ significant candidate signals, a huge increase from the 90 events of the three past runs combined🤯
Children's day is celebrated in India on 14 Nov and globally on 20 Nov. Celebrate Children's week with LIGO-India, as we highlight the wonderful initiatives and resources for school students who are keen to discover Gravitational wave science! 🧒👦✨
How many people work in the Virgo Collaboration, and what are their jobs? 🧐 No one can answer this question better than Gianluca Gemme, @INFN_ researcher and spokesperson of the Virgo Collaboration!
🔭Our fourth observing run is due to end on November 18. However, we now expect to have a 6 month observing run in 2026–27 to begin in the late summer/early fall of 2026, with detectors participating as available
observing.docs.ligo.org/plan…