MUMBAI: A site at Hingoli in Maharashtra is among the top three shortlisted for the world’s third Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in India last week. The Hingoli site had been under consideration for the past three years.
The project, which will have two L-shaped detectors with four kilometer long arms, was relocated to India from Australia in 2011. Scientists associated with the India-LIGO (called INDIGO) have ruled out north India for the site because of its seismicity. They believe that the Deccan Plateau is best suited for detector as it is considered safe from earthquakes.
Tarun Souradeep, coordinator of INDIGO and physicist with Pune-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, had led the scientists to Hingoli three years ago to inspect a patch of land spread over 350 acres. “There are several sites. One site in Maharashtra is among the shortlisted,” Souradeep told The Sunday Standard. “A formal committee will be set up soon to take decision. We have looked at 22 sites.”
Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse said the government will ensure smooth land acquisition if Hingoli is selected for the project.
INDIGO will be a replica of the two LIGO detectors, and many of its components are ready to be shipped from the US. Indian scientists have contributed substantially to the gravitational wave discovery that was announced in the US recently.
“The LIGO-India project will establish a state-of-the-art gravitational wave observatory in collaboration with LIGO laboratory,US, run by Caltech and MIT. This project will bring unprecedented opportunities for scientists and engineers to dig deeper into the realm of gravitational waves and take global leadership in this new astronomical frontier,” a government note said.
Experts believe the major hurdle will be the availability of funds. In 2014, former PM Manmohan Singh had given his nod but without financial provision. Now, all eyes are on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to see whether he makes an allocation in the upcoming Union Budget.
Waves from Space
Gravitational waves are ripples in the curvature of spacetime that propagate as waves, travelling outward from the source. They were predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 on the basis of his theory of general relativity. They transport energy as gravitational radiation. These ripples travel at the speed of light through the Universe, carrying information about their cataclysmic origins and invaluable clues to the nature of gravity. The strongest gravitational waves are produced by catastrophic events such as colliding black holes, collapse of stellar cores (supernovae), coalescing neutron stars or white dwarf stars, wobbly rotation of neutron stars that are not perfect spheres, and the remnants of gravitational radiation created by the birth of the Universe.