Star Merger

A Life-Changing Gift Helps Explain Why We're Here

On October 16, 2017, the physicists and astronomers who comprise the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo gravitational wave telescope research teams announced a discovery resulting from the largest scientific research collaboration in the history of mankind. Scientists at 952 different research institutions participated. More than 4,600 astronomers, about a third of the world's total population of research astronomers, at 70 different observatories contributed to the research findings. Radio astronomer Alessandra Corsi at Texas Tech University called the discovery "a big gift that nature has given us" and "a life-changing event."¹