India to Build Its Own LIGO for Gravitational Wave Detection

The Indian government has approved the construction of LIGO-India, a nearly identical version of the twin LIGO facilities that made history after making the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015. The Indian government will spend about $320 million to build LIGO-India, with first observations expected by the end of the decade. LIGO-India is a collaboration between the LIGO Laboratory and India's Raja Ramanna Center for Advanced Technology, Institute for Plasma Research, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, and the Department of Atomic Energy Directorate of Construction Services and Estate Management. With its advanced gravitational-wave-sensing technology, LIGO-India will greatly improve the ability of scientists to pinpoint the sky locations of the sources of gravitational waves.