LIGO
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a U.S.-based, National Science Foundation–funded facility that detects gravitational waves using kilometer-scale laser interferometers operated by Caltech and MIT. LIGO made the first direct detection of gravitational waves on September 14, 2015, inaugurating gravitational-wave astronomy and contributing to discoveries such as the multi-messenger observation of a binary neutron star merger in 2017.
