{"id":5795,"date":"2022-08-04T11:29:20","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/?p=5795"},"modified":"2022-08-05T09:50:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T08:50:39","slug":"pythagorean-astronomy-gravitational-field-trip-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/2022\/08\/04\/pythagorean-astronomy-gravitational-field-trip-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Pythagorean Astronomy: Gravitational Field Trip – part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chris

Proof that I was there!<\/p><\/div>\n

This month, we go on a field trip to the LIGO Hanford Observatory, one of a number of detectors that are searching for gravitational waves. In part one of this trip, we hear from a number of people working at the detector.<\/p>\n

Dr Mike Landry, Head of the LIGO Hanford Observatory, explains how – and crucially why – the experiment exists. Dr Fred Raab, Associate Director for Operations for LIGO, looks back to why the desolate landscape of Hanford was selected in the first place.<\/p>\n

Looking at the technical details, Drs Georgia Mansell and Craig Cahillane give some insights into commissioning and upgrading the detectors, while Corey Gray tells us about operating such a complex machine, and learning to fabricate one of the critical components – glass fibres that suspend the mirrors<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Listen on Spotify<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\nhttp:\/\/astrog80.astro.cf.ac.uk\/pythagoras-trousers\/mp3\/Jul2022_full_PHYSX.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
An extended edition of an original broadcast on 4th August 2022 as part of Pythagoras\u2019 Trousers on Radio Cardiff.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month, we go on a field trip to the LIGO Hanford Observatory, one of a number of detectors that are searching for gravitational waves. In part one of this trip, we hear from a number of people working at the detector. Dr Mike Landry, Head of the LIGO Hanford Observatory, explains how – and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":273,"featured_media":5796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,30,32],"tags":[182,74,75],"class_list":["post-5795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astronomy-2","category-media","category-pythagorean-astronomy","tag-black-holes","tag-gravitational-waves","tag-ligo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hmOz-1vt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2022\/08\/thumbnail_PXL_20220711_152022079.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/273"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5795"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5798,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795\/revisions\/5798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/physicsoutreach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}