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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLIGO Month - February 2021 Proclamation “LIGO/VIRGO Gravitational-Wave Antenna Month” February 2021 WHEREAS, in 1984, the National Science Foundation (NSF) approved a development plan for the Large Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), which led to a 1990 construction proposal and the section of Hanford, Washington as one of two sites in 1992; and WHEREAS, on September 14, 2015, LIGO’s two sites together achieved the world’s first detection of gravitational waves, whose existence had been predicted 99 years earlier by Albert Einstein, for which LIGO co-founders Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves;” and WHEREAS, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), is a professional association with over 423,000 members worldwide, and which has dedicated 212 IEEE Milestones honoring significant technical and scientific achievements throughout the world; and WHEREAS, IEEE’s 213th Milestone titled “Gravitational-Wave Antenna, 1972-1989” bearing a citation reading, in part, “In 2015, LIGO antennas, located here and in Louisiana, first detected gravitational waves produced 1.3 billion years ago from two merging black holes” will be dedicated at the LIGO site on February 3; and WHEREAS, Pasco, Washington recognizes the extraordinary achievements of the LIGO gravitational- wave antennas; and NOW, THEREFORE, I, Saul Martinez, Mayor of the City of Pasco, Washington, on behalf of the entire City Council, do hereby proclaim February, 2021 as “LIGO/VIRGO Gravitational-Wave Antenna Month” IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Official Seal of the City of Pasco, State of Washington, to be affixed this 1st day of February, 2021. Saul Martinez, Mayor City of Pasco