The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network has extended its 4th observing run, and since late January 2025 has been in the third part of this observing run, called O4c. This final part of the observing run will conclude in October 2025, at which point there will be a commissioning break before starting the 5th observing run. New glitches (and hopefully new gravitational-wave events) inbound!
Education
Reading
- LIGO Educator’s Guide for classroom materials
- Gravitational waves in the high school classroom by Ben Farr and Laura Trouille for ideas for teachers
- Gravitational waves on the back of an envelope by Bernard Schutz for those who want an introduction to the theory of gravitational waves without the full mathematics of general relativity
- LIGO Science Summaries for overviews of key results from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
- How do we know LIGO detected gravitational waves? For a summary of how we perform detector characterization
Games & gaming-related
- Spacetime Quest is a game where you design your own gravitational-wave detector and learn about the different sources of noise
- A Virtual Tour of LIGO in Minecraft a stream touring a reconstruction of an observatory site
Tutorials
To learn more about gravitational-wave detectors and data analysis, we recommend the resources from the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center. The workshops are excellent for those who want to gain an in-depth understanding.
Discussion forum & community:
- Please join the conversation with other educators and outreach specialists using Citizen Science and Zooniverse in formal and informal settings.