IUCAA Brochure 2024

Gravitational Waves LIGO-India The first detection of Gravitational waves (GW) was made by the two most sensitive detectors, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), which are located in the USA. The third LIGO detector, LIGO-India, will be built near Aundha, in the Hingoli district of Maharashtra. With its geographical advantage, it will enable precise localisation of the sources of gravitational waves, enabling them to be followed up by conventional (electromagnetic) telescopes for extracting exciting scientific details. The project will be built by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Science Foundation (NSF), USA, along with Predicted by Einstein a hundred years ago, Gravitational waves were the biggest discovery of 2015, which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017. More than a thousand researchers, including many from India, participated in this effort. several national and international research and academic institutions. The project received cabinet approval in April 2023 and is expected to start operating in 2030. The project is being led by four institutions, Directorate of Construction Services and Estate Management (DCSEM), Mumbai, Institute of Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar, Inter- University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune and Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore. IUCAA is the key science stakeholder in the project and leading the computing and data management, human resource development and education and public outreach activities.