Welcome

IndIGO, the Indian Initiative in Gravitational-wave Observations, is an initiative to set up advanced experimental facilities, with appropriate theoretical and computational support, for a multi-institutional Indian national project in gravitational-wave astronomy. Since 2009, the IndIGO Consortium has been involved in constructing the Indian road-map for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and a phased strategy towards Indian participation in realizing the crucial gravitational-wave observatory in the Asia-Pacific region. The current major IndIGO plans on gravitational-wave astronomy relate to the LIGO-India project. LIGO-India is a planned advanced gravitational-wave detector to be located in India, to be built and operated in collaboration with the LIGO USA and its international partners Australia, Germany and the UK. The project recently received the in-principle approval from the Indian government.

NEWS Cosmic fireworks: First joint detection of gravitational and electromagnetic waves from colliding neutron stars The beginning of gravitational-wave multimessenger astronomy Published At: 2017-10-16 19:30 - 17 August 2017 saw a major breakthrough in astronomy, when gravitational waves from a pair of colliding neutron stars were detected for the first time by the US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Europe-based Virgo. This happens to be the strongest gravitational-wave signal detected so far, owing to the relatively close location of about 130 million light-years from earth. The detection was also confirmed by a large number of telescopes around the world that studied various forms of radiation from the merger. This is a new milestone in the success saga of advanced gravitational wave detectors, which have announced the discoveries of four black hole mergers to date. The first such detection in 2015 led to the awarding of the Nobel prize in physics this year. Read More Nobel prize for gravitational-wave discovery Published At: 2017-10-03 20:22 - This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne of the LIGO/VIRGO Collaboration "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves”. Read More The first joint catch by LIGO and Virgo: another black hole merger detected Three detectors together delivered a significantly better localization of the source and access to polarizations of gravitational waves Published At: 2017-09-27 22:00 - The LIGO observatories in the USA observed the gravitational-wave signals from yet another merging black hole pair. This time, LIGO was joined by the Virgo observatory from Europe, which significantly contributed to the improved localization of this astronomical source in the sky, and enabled new tests of Einstein's theory based on the polarization of gravitational waves. Read More View past news

GRAVITATIONAL WAVES The existence of gravitational waves is one of the most intriguing predictions of the General Theory of Relativity proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915. Gravitational waves are distortions in the spacetime geometry that propagate with the speed of light, analogous to ripples on the surface of a pond. On 2015 September 14, the two Advanced LIGO observatories in the USA made the first direct observation of gravitational waves passing through the earth. This signal was produced by the merger of two black holes at a distance of 1.3 billion light years. This is the first of the many expected observations of this kind, that will establish the filed of gravitational-wave astronomy, opening a new window on to the Universe. Read more INDIGO IN THE NEWS LIGO lab to come up in Maharashtra by 2020 India’s future in astrophysics looks bright Gravitational wave observatory soon Rs 1,000 crore project to detect gravitational waves awaits cabinet approval LIGO detector on Indian soil under consideration: IIT-Gandhinagar 'Gravitational waves are astronomy's holy grail' LIGO detector on Indian soil under consideration: IIT-Gandhinagar LIGO detector on Indian soil under consideration: IIT-Gn Gravitational waves are astronomy's holy grail Gravitational waves hold key to cosmos