Eliminating terrestrial noise sources to improve the LIGO gravity wave detectors
Monday, June 8, 2015 - 07:00
in Astronomy & Space
In their search for gravitational waves—stretches in space-time produced by dramatically violent events in the distant universe—researchers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have created some of the most sensitive detectors in the world. Unfortunately, these detectors also pick up on lots of other disturbances—for example, strong winds or the sounds of a passing truck. Students from the Data Visualization Summer Internship program—operated by faculty members from Caltech, JPL, and Art Center College of Design—were tasked with determining if a blip on the detector is a gravitational wave or instead just a signal from ordinary bumps and shakes.