page_title: Gravitational-wave observatory
section_title: Completed, operating, and proposed gravitational-wave detectors
hierarchical_section_title: Gravitational-wave observatory / Completed, operating, and proposed gravitational-wave detectors
caption_attribution_description: English: Figure showing the noise curves of various gravitational-wave detectors as a function of frequency together with the characteristic strain of a selection of astrophysical sources.
context_page_description: A gravitational-wave observatory is any device designed to measure gravitational waves, tiny distortions of spacetime that were first predicted by Einstein in 1916. Gravitational waves are perturbations in the theoretical curvature of spacetime caused by accelerated masses. The existence of gravitational radiation is a specific prediction of general relativity, but is a feature of all theories of gravity that obey special relativity. Since the 1960s, gravitational-wave detectors have been built and constantly improved. The present-day generation of resonant mass antennas and laser interferometers has reached the necessary sensitivity to detect gravitational waves from sources in the Milky Way. Gravitational-wave observatories are the primary tool of gravitational-wave astronomy.
  A number of experiments have provided indirect evidence, notably the observation of binary pulsars, the orbits of which evolve precisely matching the predictions of energy loss through general relativistic gravitational-wave emission. The 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for this work.
caption: Noise curves for a selection of detectors as a function of frequency. The characteristic strain of potential astrophysical sources are also shown. To be detectable the characteristic strain of a signal must be above the noise curve.[35]
exif: {}