CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -It is an initiative to set up advanced experimental facilities for a multi-institutional observatory project in gravitational-wave astronomy to be located near Aundha Nagnath, Hingoli District, Maharashtra, India. Predicted date of commission is in 2024.

Detailed explanation-2: -Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), astronomical observatory located in Hanford, Washington, and in Livingston, Louisiana, that in 2015 made the first direct detection of gravitational waves. Construction began on LIGO in 1999, and observations began in 2001.

Detailed explanation-3: -The two primary research centers are located at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Detailed explanation-4: -The observatory, which will cost 12.6 billion rupees (US$177 million) and is scheduled for completion in 2024, will be built in the Hingoli District of Maharashtra state in western India.

Detailed explanation-5: -In 2015, scientists detected gravitational waves for the very first time. They used a very sensitive instrument called LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory). These first gravitational waves happened when two black holes crashed into one another. The collision happened 1.3 billion years ago.