Ten years ago, humanity heard for the first time the “roar” of a collision of black holes that occurred 1.3 billion years ago. This revolutionary discovery confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, and the LIGO observatory opened up a whole new “ear” for observing the Universe. However, today this incredible ability to hear the most catastrophic events in space is under serious threat due to drastic funding cuts.
At the request of President Donald Trump, the US administration has proposed a so-called “lean” budget for 2026, which provides for a 39.6% reduction in funding for LIGO – from $48 million to just $29 million. The most painful consequence will be the temporary closure of one of the observatory’s two extremely important detectors.
Why is this a tragedy for science?
LIGO is not a conventional telescope. This is an ingenious “auditory” system that detects infantile space-time waves — gravitational waves generated by mergers of black holes, neutron stars, and other cataclysms. Its two giant interferometers, located 3,000 kilometers apart, work as one.
How the interferometer works: a laser beam is split and sent into two perpendicular vacuum tunnels, each 4 km long. Reflecting off mirrors, the rays return. When a gravitational wave passes, it microscopically compresses space in one direction and stretches it in another, changing the distance traveled by lasers. LIGO is capable of measuring changes in ten thousandths of the width of a proton.
A setback for new astronomy
The first detection of gravitational waves in September 2015 was a scientific sensation, and it led to the 2017 Nobel Prize being awarded to the scientists responsible for their discovery. Since then, LIGO has detected hundreds of similar events, transforming our understanding of the Universe.
However, in order to continue listening to the Universe, both detectors must be operational. It is precisely the comparison of signals from different locations that allows us to distinguish the real “cry” of black holes merging in the depths of space from seismic vibrations in the Earth’s interior or even a truck passing by on a neighboring street. Disabling one interferometer will sharply reduce the sensitivity of the system and increase the number of errors. Our ability to “hear” the Universe will be seriously undermined.
Research into gravitational waves is only beginning to reveal the secrets of the cosmos. Closing half of LIGO will not only halt progress — it threatens to completely lose this revolutionary way of understanding the fundamental laws of nature and the most energetic events in the Universe. The scientific community warns that this decision is a step backward into the darkness of unknowns.
Earlier, we reported on how Trump demanded that employees voluntarily resigned from NASA.
According to science.org
