LIGO-India Project

Published
11th May, 2023

Context

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory – India (LIGO-India), on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Pokhran-II nuclear tests.

What is LIGO-India?

LIGO-India will be an advanced gravitational-wave observatory to be located in India as part of a worldwide network.

Brief about LIGO

LIGO is a network of laboratories, spread around the world, designed to detect gravitational waves produced by the movement of large celestial objects like stars and planets.
These ripples were first postulated in Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity that encapsulates our current understanding of how gravitation works.
In 2015, LIGO made history by detecting gravitational waves for the first time.

Background: LIGO-India had received the government’s in-principle approval in February 2016. Since then, the project reached several milestones towards selecting and acquiring a site and building the observatory.
Collaboration: It is envisaged as a collaborative project between a consortium of Indian research institutions and the LIGO Laboratory in the USA, along with its international partners.
- The United States will provide key components for the lab worth USD 80 million, which amounts to Rs 560 crore.
Built by: The LIGO-India project will be built by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology, with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Science Foundation, the US, along with several national and international research and academic institutions.
Location: Hingoli district of Maharashtra, about 450 km east of Mumbai

Gravitational waves are 'ripples' in space-time caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the Universe.

LIGO-India will be an extremely sensitive interferometer capable of sensing gravitational waves generated during the merger of massive astrophysical objects such as black holes, and neutron stars.
The observatory comprises two 4-km-long vacuum chambers, built perpendicular to each other. Highly reflective mirrors are placed at the end of the vacuum chambers.
Fifth node: LIGO India would be the fifth node of this international network of gravitational wave observatories. Currently, there are following operational gravitational wave observatories around the world–
- two in the United States (Hanford and Livingston)
- one in Italy (Virgo)
- one in Japan (Kagra)

National Technology Day

May 11 marks the 25th anniversary of the 1998 nuclear tests carried out at Pokhran test range, including its first test of a thermonuclear device, which has since been celebrated as the National Technology Day to honour scientists, engineers and technologists who made the tests possible.