Thinktank Science Museum

Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

The Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum

The exhibit has been on long-term display at the Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum since June 2016. It can be found on level 3 of the Thinktank in the Futures Gallery.

The exhibit provides an informative, interactive experience through the use of custom-built software. Visitors are guided through a selection of topics, from the theory behind gravitational waves, to their first detection by LIGO in 2015 and the present day construction of new detectors in the global network. Visitors can have a go at creating their own gravitational waves by pressing one of four buttons to send a simulated signal to the exhibit.

Royal Society 2017

In 2017 the exhibit was taken to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London, where with a team of gravitational wave experts the interferometer was used as part of a UK wide exhibition on Gravitational Waves: Listen to the Universe. The exhibit was modified to include a live output of the model detector, allowing members of the public to see the extreme sensitivity of the a gravitational wave detector up close. Interaction with the interferometer was possible via the use of custom gravitational wave like signals that were made specifically to distinguish between the different astrophysical sources LIGO and Virgo expected to see.

Similar interferometers have been constructed and are taken regularly by members of the Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy to other science exhibitions.