Indian scientists played a crucial role, including in data analysis, in the path-breaking project for the detection of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time. These had been predicted by Albert Einstein predicted a century ago.

Several institutes, including Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) Gandhinagar, Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, and Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore were involved in the research.

Immensely proud that Indian scientists played an important role in this challenging quest. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 11, 2016

The announcement of detection of gravitational waves was made simultaneously at IUCAA, Pune, and by scientists in Washington DC, USA. Incidentally, India is also one of countries where an advanced gravitational laboratory is being set up.

The key tasks they carried out included the following:

* Understanding the response of the LIGO detector to the signals and terrestrial influences

* Bounding the orbital eccentricity and estimating the mass and spin of the final black hole

* Estimating energy and power radiated during merger

* Confirming that observed signal agrees with Einstein's Theory of Relativity

* Searching for a possible electromagnetic counterpart using optical telescopes.

Some of these jobs were carried out in high performance computing facilities at IUCAA, Pune and ICTS, Bengaluru.

Hope to move forward to make even bigger contribution with an advanced gravitational wave detector in the country. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 11, 2016

The group, led by Bala Iyer at the Raman Research Institute in collaboration with scientists in France, had pioneered the mathematical calculations used to model gravitational wave signals from orbiting black holes and neutron stars.

Another group led by Sanjeev Dhurandhar at IUCAA initiated and carried out foundation work on developing data analysis techniques to detect these weak gravitational wave signals buried in the detector noise by looking for the best match between the calculated waveforms and the detector signal. Meanwhile, the director of Pune's Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) Somak Raychaudhury said he was looking forward to the launch of a similar observatory in India.

TOI

A similar facility is being planned in India in a direction opposite to the two American observatories in Louisiana and Washington. "We need detectors in many more directions so that the exact route of the gravitational wave can be traced... hence, the proposal to set up an observatory in India," Raychaudhury told TOI.

LIGO-India is being envisaged as a collaborative project between a consortium of Indian research institutions, the LIGO Lab in the US and its other international partners. The Centre has offered a funding of Rs 1,200 crore for the project. While the LIGO lab is set to provide the complete design and the key detector components, Indian scientists will be responsible for the infrastructure to install the detector at a suitable site in India.

TOI

Read Also: Scientists Have For The First Time Discovered Gravitational Waves That Einstein Predicted Years Ago