Live Webcast: LIGO, Virgo Scientists to Discuss Continued Search for Gravitational Waves

The latest research in the effort to detect gravitational waves will be discussed in a press briefing at the 228th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego, California. The public can view the briefing during the live webcast, scheduled to begin at 10:15 am Pacific Daylight Time on Wednesday, June 15, 2016. The panelists for the briefing are Caltech's David Reitze, executive director of LIGO; Gabriela González, LIGO Scientific Collaboration spokesperson, from Louisiana State University; and Fulvio Ricci, Virgo spokesperson, from the University of Rome Sapienza and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Rome.

The first detection of gravitational waves, announced on February 11, 2016, confirmed a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity, and marked the beginning of the new field of gravitational-wave astronomy.

LIGO, a system of two identical detectors located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, was constructed to detect the tiny vibrations from passing gravitational waves, was conceived and built by Caltech and MIT with funding from the National Science Foundation and contributions from other U.S. and international partners.