The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network has now started the second half of its fourth observing run, called O4b. The first half of the fourth observing run, O4a, ran from May 2023 - January 2024 and already accumulated 81 new significant gravitational-wave candidates. One of these was a neutron star merging with a mass-gap object, which you can read more about here. Many more gravitational-wave events (and many more glitches) to come!
Education
Reading
- LIGO Educator’s Guide for classroom materials
- Gravitational waves in the high school classroom by Ben Farr and Laura Trouille for ideas for teachers
- Gravitational waves on the back of an envelope by Bernard Schutz for those who want an introduction to the theory of gravitational waves without the full mathematics of general relativity
- LIGO Science Summaries for overviews of key results from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
- How do we know LIGO detected gravitational waves? For a summary of how we perform detector characterization
Games & gaming-related
- Spacetime Quest is a game where you design your own gravitational-wave detector and learn about the different sources of noise
- A Virtual Tour of LIGO in Minecraft a stream touring a reconstruction of an observatory site
Tutorials
To learn more about gravitational-wave detectors and data analysis, we recommend the resources from the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center. The workshops are excellent for those who want to gain an in-depth understanding.
Discussion forum & community:
- Please join the conversation with other educators and outreach specialists using Citizen Science and Zooniverse in formal and informal settings.