National Science Foundation Media Event
for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
February 11, 2016
LIGO Detected Gravitational Waves from Black Holes
On September 14, 2015 at 5:51 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (09:51 UTC), the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, USA both measured ripples in the fabric of spacetime – gravitational waves – arriving at the Earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. The new Advanced LIGO detectors had just been brought into operation for their first observing run when the very clear and strong signal was captured.
Over the Sun, LLC provided b-roll, animations, and hi-resolution clips from the 2 films it had produced for Caltech and the University of Mississippi, “LIGO, A Passion for Understanding” and “LIGO Generations” respectively, both NSF funded short, documentary-styled films.
Caltech, MIT, Discovery Channel Canada and US, and several university and broadcast organisations world-wide, used OTS footage as an integral foundation for their timely media releases to celebrate this discovery.
“National Press Club, Press Conference”
- Direct webcast of Press Conference: 9,994 live views
- YouTube webcast of Press Conference: 430,351 live views
LIGO Detects Gravitational Wave
(longer version of the introductory video which played at the Press Conference, above)
by Joe McMaster, MIT
“LIGO: Opening a New Window Onto the Universe”
by Leslie Maxfield, Caltech
“LIGO: The First Observation of Gravitational Waves”
by James Round, NASA JPL