LIGO-India event held to educate Hingoli residents on proposed gravitational wave detector

Five Newtonian 5 inch telescopes donated by the Newton-Bhabha scheme, along with two refractor 2.5 inch telescopes, were distributed by the Collector and District Magistrate Abhinav Goel and Zila Parishad CEO Neha Bhosale to representatives from selected schools in each of the five talukas around the LIGO-India site. For each cluster, a “Khagol Manch” astronomers’ group has been identified, to ensure regular and proper usage of the telescopes.

The programme also included lectures on basics in Astronomy by Prasad Adekar, scientific assistant at IUCAA Scipop team; gravitational wave astronomy by Sudhir Gholap, PhD scholar at IUCAA PhD; interaction sessions with gravitational wave scientists and a demonstration session with interactive models by Kshitij Pareshetti, research student at Fergusson College, and Aarya Thuse, physics student at Savitribai Phule Pune University, LIGO Livingston virtual tour and workshop on optics and telescope usage by Tushar Purohit, Outreach Associate at IUCAA Scipop team, followed by a session on telescope assembly and skywatching by the teams from the five talukas.

The sessions were attended by more than 150 school teachers from the region. Resource materials including a LIGO-India Science guidebook (in Marathi) were also distributed among them. The event was followed by a visit to a primary school in Ambala village, where the school children had a chance to interact with gravitational wave scientists and the EPO team to find out about the importance and future opportunities of the LIGO-India project.

Debarati Chatterjee, associate professor at IUCAA and chair of LIEPO, said, “The LIGO-India Star Fests at Hingoli have played an important role towards disseminating correct information about gravitational wave science and the project, highlighting its significance and opportunities to the local inhabitants. The Hon’ble Collector and District Magistrate Abhinav Goel also spoke about the synergy between LIGO-India outreach activities with the goals of the local administration in promoting astronomy to popularise science among the young generation and encouraged the participants to harness the opportunities presented by the LIGO-India mega-science project.”

The Nobel-prize winning discovery of gravitational waves in 2015 by the LIGO and Virgo detectors was a milestone in physics. The LIGO-India detector, a proposed gravitational wave detector on Indian soil, will enhance the current network of global gravitational wave detectors through its geographic location and enhanced sensitivity.