Places in Washington: The LIGO Hanford Observatory

Basic Information

• Name: LIGO Hanford Observatory
• Where: Richland, Washington
• Founded: 1999
• Cost: Free admission
• Hours: Open house on 2nd Saturday each month
• More Information: LIGO Hanford website

Directions

Getting to LIGO ended up being easier than I thought it would be. It is located just outside of Richland which is part of what is known as the “Tri-Cities” area of Washington State.  From I-82 that travels through Richland, simply exit onto Highway 240 that travels northwest towards Yakima.  About 10 miles up the highway Hanford Route 10 can be seen on the right.  There are no signs pointing towards LIGO from the highway so you have to keep your eyes open for this road.  Once on Hanford Route 10 travel up it about 5 miles until the LIGO facility is visible on the left.

Parking

At the LIGO facility there is a large dirt parking lot next to the visitor center that was able to handle the large number of visitors that came to the open house the day we visited.  The visitor center and parking lot are easy to find, just follow the signs.

Narrative

Being a big fan of science, I have always wanted to visit the LIGO Hanford Observatory located outside of Richland, Washington.  LIGO stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory.  The LIGO Hanford facility is very famous within the scientific world for being, along with its sister facility in Louisiana, the first observatories to detect the existence of gravitational waves on September 14, 2015.

Albert Einstein had long theorized the existence of gravitational waves, but never had the instruments to prove their existence.  Today technology has advanced enough to where LIGO observatories are able to now detect these waves thus proving Einstein right.  Something I find really great about the LIGO Hanford facility is how they offer monthly open houses for the general public to visit the facility.  Even those who visit during non-open house days can still stop by the visitor center and view the displays there on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays:

Inside the visitor center we found helpful staff and a number of displays about the LIGO facility and early attempts to try and detect gravitational waves:

The day we visited the visitor center was packed with people because the two prior open houses had been cancelled due to bad weather.  This caused a back log of people who wanted to see the facility to include myself and my two kids I brought with me.  It was nearly shoulder to shoulder standing room inside the visitor center:

The LIGO personnel decided to break the large group of people into different tour groups separated by 30 minute intervals.  We waited for about an hour before we were able to depart on our tour.  Unfortunately on the day we visited it was raining heavily outside which made the outdoor portion of the tour unpleasant for those that did not bring rain gear.  Fortunately my kids and I were well equipped.

Here is a picture of the damp LIGO facility:

The tour groups are led by volunteers who work as scientists at the facility.  This means they are extremely knowledgeable and can answer most questions.  The first place our tour guide took our group to was a static displays of the tubes used to detect gravitational waves:

There is a display that shows how thick the concrete is that covers the metal tubes.  Our tour group all crammed inside of the cement display in order to use it as shelter to get out of the rain:

The static display had two types of tubes on display.  The first tube was larger and what was originally installed during the facility’s 1999 construction:

A laser was fired through the vacuum sealed tube in an effort to detect gravitational waves caused by the merger of two blackholes or the merger of other dense celestial objects like neutron stars.  From 2002-2010 scientists tried to detect gravitational waves using this technology and were not able to detect any.  The lessons learned from the early detection efforts were used to redesign the tube and the laser between 2010-2014.  The second narrower tube on display is the one that is currently in use at the facility:

The redesign obviously worked because a year later LIGO detected its first gravitational wave.  The below video explains how the current LIGO technology works to detect the gravitational waves:

From the static display it is possible to see the concrete that covers the tube that stretches one kilometer out into the distance.  Next to the concrete tube there was a combine that our tour guide said was used to clean up the tumbleweeds that frequently collects next to the tube:

Out in the distance it was actually possible to see the building where one of the facility’s two tubes ended at:

After checking out the outdoor static display the tour guide next brought us inside the LIGO facility and thankfully out of the rain.  The first room inside the building we entered appeared to be a lunch room.  There the tour guide talked more about the facility and answered questions:

He next took us into the control room where the scientists conduct 24 hour shifts at in their ongoing effort to detect gravitational waves:

I was very impressed by the level access given to our tour group.  We could look at and ask questions about anything and the scientists would provide answers.  There is nothing going on here they were trying to keep secret and the LIGO scientists were all very enthusiastic about what they were doing.  Since 2015, LIGO has detected two neutron star mergers, 13 black hole mergers, and one possible black hole-neutron star merger.

After checking out the control room the tour guide took our group back to the visitor center.  On the way back we stopped by the Staging Building:

This building is where maintenance on the LIGO equipment is done.  The equipment inside the vacuum tubes has to be completely free of dust and thus why the building has a clean room and all the technicians have to wear full body suits to conduct any maintenance.

Here is a panorama picture I took with the Staging Building on the left and the LIGO facility on the right:

From the Staging Building we walked back to the visitor center and returned in time to listen to the 3:00 PM talk given by one of the LIGO scientists inside the large auditorium there.  The scientist covered a lot of the same material that our tour guide already discussed, but he had a lot of graphics to help visitors better understand how they detect gravitational waves.  The presentation lasted about 30 minutes and I found it interesting:

Conclusion

Overall I really enjoyed the visit to the LIGO Hanford Observatory.  My 9 and 6 year old kids had fun as well since we do a lot of science related activities together.  The level of access to the facility and the enthusiasm of the scientists working at LIGO Hanford really made the open house something I recommend fans of science make the drive to the Tri-Cities area to check out.