Land handed over for first LIGO project in India

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Hingoli income division handed around 225 hectares of land right in Maharashtra to the authorities of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) venture.

About:

• The land was handed over in order to organise primary facilities within the nation.
• There are currently few such labs in the United States, at Hanford in Washington and Livingston in Louisiana. These labs examine the gravitational waves.
• This venture will provide alternatives to scientists and engineers for digging deeper into the concept of gravitational waves.

Background

Central authorities had given an ‘in precept’ approval to LIGO-India mega science proposal in 2016, to analyse the gravitational waves.

What is LIGO?

LIGO is a massive observatory to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to carry experiments. Its main objective is to make use of gravitational-wave observations in astronomical studies. This project currently operates three gravitational waves (GW) detectors. Out of three, two are at Hanford in Washington while one is at Livingston in Louisiana.

LIGO India project

The LIGO India project was proposed with the aim of moving one advanced LIGO detector to India, from Hanford. This project is piloted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). This project in India will be coordinated and executed jointly by three Indian research institutions namely, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) in Indore, Department of Atomic Energy organisations: Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune.