End of O2 data taking: 4 very exciting weeks in Virgo!

This data taking period, called “Run O2”, started on November 30, 2016 with the LIGO detectors. After a tuning period the Virgo detector joined them on August 1, 2017. Some gravitational-waves candidates have been identified in data from both LIGO and Virgo during the preliminary analysis, and have been shared with the astronomical observing partners. Indeed some events generating gravitational waves could have an optic or electromagnetic counterpart and therefore could be observed by these telescopes. The Virgo detector is very important in this search as it allows a much better localisation of the source and thus to direct the telescopes search. The LIGO-Virgo teams are analysing the data collected in order to present, in a near future, the results to the scientific community and the greater public.

The LAPP team is strongly involved in all scientific aspects of the Virgo project, with important responsibilities in the design, production and commissioning of the detector. It is on the front line for the data analysis and naturally took part in the data taking ensuring the good functioning of the detector. The picture below shows the Virgo duty cycle during the whole data taking period: science data have been collected more than 80% of the time over four weeks.

At LAPP, the Virgo team is not about to rest during the coming months!