LIGO was awarded the 2019 National Air and Space Museum Trophy for Current Achievement.
Using the groundbreaking NSF-funded instrument LIGO, LSC detected gravitational waves, heralding a new age of multi-messenger astronomy. In August 2017, LSC with sister facility and collaboration Virgo, achieved the first-ever detection of colliding neutron stars, called a kilonova. Astronomers detected the collision with both gravitational waves and light, marking the first time anything has ever been observed with both kinds of detectors. Before 2017, a kilonova had previously only been theorized. Now it has been studied, and the LSC’s observations confirmed some of those theories. For example, the mergers of neutron stars are now known to be the source of much of the gold, platinum and uranium in the Universe, as well as other heavy elements. These discoveries were truly a collaborative achievement with involvement from approximately 15 percent of all astronomers.