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LIGO detects most massive black hole merger to date

(www.caltech.edu)
360 points Eduard | 4 comments | 14 Jul 25 20:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.63s | source
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kens ◴[14 Jul 25 21:49 UTC] No.44565731[source]▶
A month ago, the proposed NSF budget would shut down one of the two LIGO observatories in the US, wrecking its ability to triangulate the location of events such as this black hole merger. A shutdown would also severely damage the noise margins and detection rate. Does anyone know if the shutdown is still planned? (I couldn't find any recent info.)

https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-s-proposed-cut...

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1. robin_reala ◴[15 Jul 25 08:12 UTC] No.44569037[source]▶
Given that there’s a handful of gravitational-wave observatories running globally at this point, why does the closure of one LIGO wreck triangulation?
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2. agos ◴[15 Jul 25 11:16 UTC] No.44569961[source]▶
the collaboration to be able to triangulate is composed of LIGO, Virgo and now KAGRA. KAGRA is not yet fully ready for longer observation runs, so for now it's basically LIGO and Virgo - and if you take offline one of three, triangulation becomes nearly useless
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3. ◴[15 Jul 25 12:34 UTC] No.44570493[source]▶
4. robin_reala ◴[15 Jul 25 12:55 UTC] No.44570648[source]▶
Looking at their Grafana dashboard, it looks like GEO600 and KAGRA are both observing? https://online.ligo.org/grafana/public-dashboards/1a0efabe65...