India has approved the construction of a gravitational-wave observatory, making it the third country in the world to have such a facility. The observatory will be built in Hingoli district in the western state of Maharashtra and is expected to be operational by 2025.
Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time caused by the acceleration of massive objects, such as black holes or neutron stars. These waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity in 1916, but it wasn’t until 2015 that they were directly detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States.
Since then, several other gravitational-wave observatories have been built around the world, including the Virgo detector in Italy and the KAGRA detector in Japan. These observatories work by using lasers to measure tiny changes in the distance between two mirrors caused by passing gravitational waves.
The Indian observatory, called the IndIGO (Indian Initiative in Gravitational-wave Observations) Consortium, will be a collaboration between several Indian institutions and international partners. It will consist of two detectors, each with arms that are four kilometers long.
The construction of the observatory is expected to cost around $236 million and will be funded by the Indian government and international partners. The facility will also create job opportunities for local residents and boost the economy of the region.
The IndIGO Consortium has already made significant contributions to the field of gravitational-wave astronomy, including the discovery of a binary black hole merger in 2019. With the construction of the new observatory, India will be able to make even more groundbreaking discoveries in this field.
The detection of gravitational waves has opened up a new window into the universe, allowing scientists to study some of the most extreme phenomena in the cosmos. By studying these waves, scientists can learn more about the nature of gravity, the properties of black holes and neutron stars, and the evolution of the universe.
The construction of the IndIGO observatory is a significant step forward for India’s scientific community and will contribute to the global effort to study gravitational waves. It is a testament to India’s commitment to scientific research and its growing role in the international scientific community.
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