3 ms·

Should we building a 3rd or maybe 4th LIGO so we can know where the events actually come from? What's the best timing precision possible on the different recep

Should we building a 3rd or maybe 4th LIGO so we can know where the events actually come from? What's the best timing precision possible on the different reception times, to get better triangulation (if there was at least a 3rd LIGO)? What's the odds of seeing one event when starting it up, and none since then? How long will it take for any new events to be announced?

ikeboy 11y ago
3 was partly answered in https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/45g8qu/we_are_the_ligo_scientific_collaboration_and_we/czxqa71 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/45g8qu/we_are_the_lig... >How many signals we see has to do both with how sensitive our detectors are and how often events that can cause waves strong enough happen; because we observed one of these events in 18 days of observation, we can tell that there are between 2 and 400 of these events per year per gigaparsec cubed events like this in the space around us.
Herodotus38 11y ago
They are planning on building more sites, see: https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/ligo-india https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/ligo-india
jessriedel 11y ago
> What's the odds of seeing one event when starting it up, and none since then? They have seen other events, this was just the biggest.
- InclinedPlane 11y ago
  [citation needed]
  - jessriedel 11y ago
    What's the MLA format for word of mouth? :)
topquark 11y ago
In addition to the two LIGO sites, there is the Virgo instrument outside of Pisa, Italy, which will come online later this year. The KAGRA detector is currently being assembled underneath a mountain in Japan. And, mentioned in another reply, LIGO has the equipment for a third detector. This is currently in storage in the hopes that the Indian government will build a facility. By 2023 there should be five widely-spaced detectors worldwide. The resolution of time-of-flight between the two LIGO sites for the signal we just detected was about half a millisecond. This resolution is somewhat dependent on the signal strength and the location of the source relative to the detectors. With three sites we can localize most sources to tens of square degrees on the sky. This is still very large; the moon is a quarter of a square degree. The odds are pretty good to observe only one event in 16 days of data, and the likelihood of seeing the event on the first day is the same as the likelihood as seeing it on the last day. The analysis of the remaining data from the first observing run (ended Jan 12th) will probably take a couple of months.

ikeboy 11y ago

3 was partly answered in https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/45g8qu/we_are_the_ligo_scientific_collaboration_and_we/czxqa71 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/45g8qu/we_are_the_lig... >How many signals we see has to do both with how sensitive our detectors are and how often events that can cause waves strong enough happen; because we observed one of these events in 18 days of observation, we can tell that there are between 2 and 400 of these events per year per gigaparsec cubed events like this in the space around us.

Herodotus38 11y ago

They are planning on building more sites, see: https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/ligo-india https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/ligo-india

jessriedel 11y ago

> What's the odds of seeing one event when starting it up, and none since then? They have seen other events, this was just the biggest.

InclinedPlane 11y ago
[citation needed]
- jessriedel 11y ago
  What's the MLA format for word of mouth? :)

topquark 11y ago

In addition to the two LIGO sites, there is the Virgo instrument outside of Pisa, Italy, which will come online later this year. The KAGRA detector is currently being assembled underneath a mountain in Japan. And, mentioned in another reply, LIGO has the equipment for a third detector. This is currently in storage in the hopes that the Indian government will build a facility. By 2023 there should be five widely-spaced detectors worldwide. The resolution of time-of-flight between the two LIGO sites for the signal we just detected was about half a millisecond. This resolution is somewhat dependent on the signal strength and the location of the source relative to the detectors. With three sites we can localize most sources to tens of square degrees on the sky. This is still very large; the moon is a quarter of a square degree. The odds are pretty good to observe only one event in 16 days of data, and the likelihood of seeing the event on the first day is the same as the likelihood as seeing it on the last day. The analysis of the remaining data from the first observing run (ended Jan 12th) will probably take a couple of months.