Quote:
Originally Posted by Atmos
For the answer to that I deserve a Nobel Prize  |
I cant alter the [25 marks] for this particular question. It wouldnt be fair on all the other students who are sitting the exam.
Its interesting to note that the September 2015 measurement at the LIGO facility, occurred a few days prior to the official opening and whilst it was undergoing some tests before the ceremonial opening.
The LIGO researchers were working hard to meet the deadline and when they left the facility at 2:00AM in the morning, they decided to leave the detector on. The GW blimp decided to hit the earth a few hours later at about 4:50AM. I cant recall a measurement of this importance being taken under such circumstances. Incredible.
The researchers at LIGO used to secretly and deliberately disturb the mirrors to test the detector. They would write down when they did it and sealed it in an envelope. When a detection was made, word would go around to see if anybody tampered with the mirrors or detector. At 4:50AM that day, nobody produced an envelope. The signal was real.
Took a while to validate the signal (and rightly so)
