Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. A facility to detect astrophysical gravitational waves consisting of two widely separated installations in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana, operated in unison as a single observatory. www.ligo.caltech.edu

One of the latest ongoing of several experimental attempts to detect gravitational waves. The abbreviation means "laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory."

LIGO stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Cofounded in 1992 by Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever of Caltech and Rainer Weiss of MIT, LIGO is a joint project between scientists at MIT and Caltech. It is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).