A Thermal Camera Trick Could Let LIGO See Twice as Far

An aerial view of LIGO's Hanford, Washington observatory, showing the L-shaped facility with its two 4 kilometre arms (Credit : Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab)

A team of researchers have found a surprisingly simple way to boost the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors like LIGO. It’s surprisingly simple to, just point an ordinary thermal imaging camera at the mirrors themselves. The technique could improve LIGO’s next upgrade by up to 31%, letting it detect neutron star collisions tens of millions of light years farther away, and is already being built into the design of its planned successor, Cosmic Explorer.

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