A sample of telescopes (operating as of February 2013) operating at wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum. As LIGO and other detectors become even better at finding gravitational waves, there are countless new discoveries waiting for us. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Describe how optical telescopes work, and specify the advantages of reflecting telescopes over refactors, Explain why larger telescopes gather more light and can make more detailed images, Describe how earth's atmosphere limits astronomical observations, and explain how astronomers overcome these limitations and more. Here we briefly introduce observatories used for each band of the EM spectrum. Discovering gravitational waves means that we've gained a brand new way of looking at the universe. At the center of the facility is a giant laser that shoots down the two tunnels, where it is reflected off the smoothest mirrors ever built. These tunnels had all the air removed, a process that took more than a month. They built a massive facility with two long tunnels, each almost two miles in length. In order to measure those tiny spacetime fluctuations, LIGO needed one of the largest and most precise experiments in human history. The reason it's so difficult to detect them is because they only stretch space a tiny amount. These collisions release so much energy that their gravity actually causes ripples in the fabric of spacetime, stretching and compressing space as the waves move outward at the speed of light. Gravitational waves like the ones detected at LIGO come from massive black hole collisions.
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