Advanced LIGO - start for the search of the detection of gravitational waves

[torsion]

Exciting news! The Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) started it its first observation run after a major upgrade to Advanced LIGO, http://www.caltech.edu/news/advanced-ligo-begin-operations-47898.

The LIGO detectors are looking for gravitational waves coming from the most violent events in the universe (binary neutron star mergers, binary black hole mergers, GRB etc). These detectors are looking for minuscule displacements of suspended test masses on earth, due to these gravitational waves.

More details of LIGO can be found here, http://www.ligo.org.

Bram

[xelasnave]

Thanks Bram for taking the time to post this exciting news.
I wonder what the chance is of finding a gravity wave.
How close would a black hole collision need to be to be detectable.
Also there must be a sea of gravity waves passing us by one may think. Small ones .
I think even the Sun Earth generates about 200 watts.. I don't know but the task seems difficult in the extreme.
If not found would that constitute a falsification of GR.
I have read such but how could it given how difficult and maybe the rarity of events.