Quote:
Originally Posted by csb
Thanks Malcolm. I finally found some articles and they have the same info you gave.
I had read about 2 LIGO detectors being in operation but I am really surprised that any 2 earth-based detectors could triangulate the direction of something sooooo far away. 2,000 km is not wide on the cosmic scale.
Amazing!
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Hi Craig,
You might find the thread in the science discussion section of interest.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=142698
In a nutshell, the two detectors could only provide a very rough direction
in the sky from where the signal originated.
It is a very large region of sky in the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
See contour plot of uncertainty here -
https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/image/ligo20160211b
As mentioned in the press conference, a minimum of four detectors
on various parts of the Earth in various orientations would be the
minimum number required to pinpoint with some precision.
The amplitude, frequency and damping response of the signal when the
black holes merged however reveals a wealth of information about the
size of the black holes, their distance and so on.