LIGO Hanford Observatory

Category: Observatory

Address: 127124 N Route 10, Richland, WA 99354, USA

Phone: +15093728106

Reviews

Aswathy Anna Baby

Jan 6, 2022

Amazing place to visit for space enthusiasts. You get all the information abut gravitational wave studies and a peekaboo to what's happening all the while in space. It's a working Lab. Still, they organize a 2 hr detailed tour on every 2nd Saturday of the month. Special mention to the staff and scientists working there.

Kevin Mapes

Nov 10, 2019

First Saturday of the month great informative free public tours. Get your geek on and come see science in action. The tour guides are actual scientists that know what’s happening. Very informative tours and a fun family outing.

Tom Deus

Apr 25, 2019

Amber did a great job of making this super interesting even though it was way over my head! Seeing the control room and tubes were cool! I can recommend to most anyone.

Tilman Weckesser

Aug 11, 2018

Great experience. We joined a guided tour by a researcher working at LIGO. She was my making effort to explain everything also on non-scientific level. I recommend to watch the short video before the guided tour.

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Questions & Answers

How does it detect the gravitational waves? What is the significance of these two long rods?

Gaurav Verma | Aug 26, 2018
Samuel Winter | Aug 26, 2018

There's a laser that travels down the rods, and all the air is sucked out the tunnels to make a vacuum. The setup is very sensitive, gravitational waves will cause the laser to stretch or shrink and is what is measured by the computers. There's an observatory in both Washington and Louisiana. The two facilities compare their data to make sure that they are actually measuring gravitational waves instead of nearby earthquakes and cars driving by etc.

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Although gravity is a force, is it a wave or a particle, or both?

Forest Hertlein | Aug 26, 2019
Richard Abbott | Aug 26, 2019

There is a difference between the force of gravity (which as you point out is a force of attraction) and a gravitational wave (of interest to LIGO) which is a ripple in the fabric of space itself (typically referred to as spacetime). The two things are related in that gravitational waves are produced, for example, by two stars orbiting each other due to the attraction of gravity while at the same time losing energy in the form of gravitational waves. There are some nice explanations on the LIGO website, or perhaps you can go to one of the regularly scheduled public tours of the LIGO facility. Hope that's a bit helpful in your search for an answer. Great question. Oh, and by the way, gravity is neither a wave nor a particle, similar to the principle of an electric field in that sense. Its usually not far when asking fundamental questions like this, that you bottom out in the shallow understanding of human knowledge, which while frustrating, simply means there's plenty left to learn.

what kind of people work there

Russo Sheryl | Aug 26, 2019
Richard Abbott | Aug 26, 2019

Like any organization, there is a diverse cross section of people working at LIGO. It is a great place to work, and attracts the best in business, facilities, engineering, and science. People work long hours at all times of the day and night to detect gravitational waves.

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are people able to come for tours? see the equipment, and latest data..and have it explained? My wife is dying to see stuff like this and, I am fascinated by Neutron Stars, black holes and other massive objects colliding!

Brian Bailey | Aug 25, 2020
Whitney Osborn | Aug 25, 2020

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/WA/page/lho-public-tours A free public tour is held the second Saturday of each month. It is truly fascinating, please go!

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What was the time period to detects the gravitational waves and Dose its sounds??

Dhananjay Naiknaware | Aug 25, 2020
Tom Planck Sørensen | Aug 25, 2020

Go til ligo.caltech.edu for answers if possible go visit the observatory they are open for visitors.

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Did you offer school tour?

Vaibhav Kasaudhan | Aug 26, 2018
Bryan Kerr | Aug 26, 2018

Yes they do, we met the person that conducts the tours, she was excellent and they are very motivated to teach

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