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Union cabinet gives nod to build gravitational wave observatory in India

  • In a major boost to Indian science research, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to establish a state-of-the-art gravitational waveobservatory in India in collaboration with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in the US.
  • The "in-principle" approval for the LIGO-India project for research on gravitational waves -- a discovery that is regarded as the breakthrough of the century -- is piloted by the department of atomic energy (DAE) and department of science and technology (DST), a press release said.
  • The project will bring unprecedented opportunities for scientists and engineers to dig deeper into the realm of gravitational wave and take global leadership in this new astronomical frontier.
  • The LIGO-India project will also bring considerable opportunities in cutting-edge technology for the Indian industry which will be engaged in the construction of the 8-km long beam tube at ultra-high vacuum on a levelled terrain.
  • Confirming a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity, scientists including several of Indian-origin this month observed gravitational waves, or ripples in the fabric of space time, arriving at Earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his happiness over the historic detection of gravitational waves and lauded the role of Indian scientists in the project.
  • "Historic detection of gravitational waves opens up new frontier for understanding of universe. Immensely proud that Indian scientists played an important role in this challenging quest," he tweeted.
  • Dubbed as the breakthrough of the century, the international team of scientists believes that the detection of gravitational waves will open an unprecedented new window to the cosmos.
  • Gravitational waves carry information about their dramatic origins and about the nature of gravity that cannot be obtained from elsewhere.
  • Physicists have concluded that the detected gravitational waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole.
  • This collision of two black holes had been predicted but never observed.
  • The twin LIGO detectors are located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington.
  • The LIGO observatories are funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and were conceived, built and are operated by Caltech and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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