LIGO-VIRGO: A NEW ERA FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVE SCIENCE

27 Settembre 2017

OG4 2017
The Virgo collaboration and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration reported on September the 27th, during the G7 Science and Technology Summit in Torino, the first three-detector observation of gravitational waves. This result highlights the scientific potential of a global network of gravitational wave detectors, by delivering a better localization of the source and access to polarizations of gravitational waves.
The two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, USA and the Virgo detector, located at the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) in Cascina, near Pisa, Italy, detected a transient gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of two stellar mass black holes.

The three-detector observation was made on August 14, 2017 at 10:30:43 UTC. The detected gravitational waves – ripples in space and time – were emitted during the final moments of the merger of two black holes with masses about 31 and 25 times the mass of the Sun and located about 1.8 billion light-years away. The newly produced spinning black hole has about 53 times the mass of our Sun. This means that about 3 solar masses were converted into gravitational-wave energy during the coalescence.
This is the fourth detection of a binary black hole system. While this new event is of astrophysical relevance, its detection comes with an additional asset: this is the first significant gravitational wave signal recorded by the Virgo detector, which has recently completed its upgrade to Advanced Virgo.

Potrebbero interessarti anche

Piano Triennale INFN 2026-2028, Perugia

OLTRE LE FRONTIERE: A PERUGIA LE GIORNATE DEL PIANO TRIENNALE 2026-2028

Palazzo Lante a Roma, sede della Presidenza dell'INFN

Commento del Presidente dell’INFN Antonio Zoccoli su incremento FOE

Il Premio Nobel Takaaki Kajita all'evento per Einstein Telescope e la collaborazione Italia-Giappone per la ricerca sulle onde gravitazionali, organizzato dall'INFN durante la settimana della Regione Sardegna a Expo2025 Osaka

Expo2025 Osaka: la Sardegna per Einstein Telescope sotto i riflettori con il premio Nobel Kajita

La sostenibilità di ET, intervista a Maria Marsella

Open Symposium ESPPU 2026

La comunità europea della fisica delle particelle si incontra a Venezia per preparare il futuro della disciplina

Il Ministro dell'Università e della Ricerca Anna Maria Bernini in visita ai Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati dell'INFN

Il Ministro dell’Università e della Ricerca Anna Maria Bernini in visita ai Laboratori di Frascati dell’INFN