EGO and the Virgo Collaboration

His visit sparked a dialogue that continues to inspire us today in our work related to art and science.

Actually it is no coincidence that one of his most famous works is 'Einstein on the Beach', a turning point in the history of opera with the music of Philip Glass, that described in an unprecedented way space, time and movement.

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Bob Wilson, world-renowned theater stage director and playwright that we had the honour and pleasure to welcome at EGO and Virgo in 2022, invited by Stavros Katsanevas.

Merger of two massive black holes is one for the record books The event resulted in a new black hole with a mass 225 times larger than our Sun.

"Merger of two massive black holes is one for the record books"

@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social reports on our LIGO @egovirgo.bsky.social KAGRA discovery of #GW231123

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

🔭🧪⚛️

In addition to their high masses they are also rapidly spinning, making this a uniquely challenging signal to interpret, pushing our instrumentation and data-analysis capabilities to the edge of what’s currently possible 🧐

The signal, called GW231123 because it was detected on November 23, 2023, came from a merger of black holes approximately 103 and 137 times the mass of the Sun, that produced a final black hole more than 225 times the mass of the Sun! ☀️

The @ligo.org - Virgo - KAGRA Collaboration is happy to announce the detection of the merger of the most massive black holes ever observed with gravitational waves 🕳️🕳️

Amanda Farah at a podium in front of a slide introducing GW231123

In this morning’s plenary at #GR24Amaldi16, Amanda Farah introduces the newest (and most massive and likely most rapidly spinning) @ligo.org - @egovirgo.bsky.social - KAGRA event, #GW231123! Read more about this exceptional event in the discovery paper: arxiv.org/abs/2507.08219

Expérience Virgo à Pise

Expérience KM3Net, en Méditerranée

Expérience Atlas du LHC au CERN

Expérience LHCb du LHC au CERN

🎉 Happy 50th anniversary to @nikhef.bsky.social!

From all of us at @cnrs-in2p3.bsky.social, thank you for being such great partners in science. Here's to many more years of fruitful collaboration, from @egovirgo.bsky.social and the LHC to @km3net.bsky.social and beyond! 🌍

#nikhef50

Yes! You can find all the info here: www.ego-gw.it/registration...

Hi! Do you mean visiting the Virgo interferometer here in Pisa, Italy?

ℹ️ The 'Big Bang Machine' van is a mobile immersive installation created by the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) with the support of IVECO, the Pisa Foundation and the European Union projects AHEAD 2020 and PICO.

Comicon Naples was out of this world 🚀 Thousands of people came to our stand and over 800 had the immersive experience of the Big Bang Machine! Thanks to everyone for the enthusiasm, and stay tuned for the next events 🚛

They were presented with the editio princeps of the Divine Comedy by Pierluigi Mingarelli, director of the Experimental Sciences Laboratory, Roberto Battiston, president of the European Space Sciences Committee, and the philosopher of science Silvano Tagliagambe.

Gianluca Gemme, researcher at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and spokesperson for the Virgo Collaboration, and Filippo Martelli, professor at the University of Urbino Carlo Bo and member of the Virgo Collaboration.

Accepting the award on behalf of this community were Massimo Carpinelli, professor at the University of Milan Bicocca and Director of the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), the institution that hosts the Virgo gravitational wave detector,

And thus reminds us of the great social and civil responsibility that always accompanies scientific research and our efforts to expand the boundaries of knowledge."

"This prize, in fact, emphasises the broader significance that great scientific endeavours, such as the observation of gravitational waves, can have for society, education and, I would say, for the entire human community.

"We are honoured by the recognition that the Science and Philosophy Festival and the city of Foligno have awarded to the Virgo International Collaboration," said Gianluca Gemme.

Today in Foligno during the Festa di Scienza e Filosofia the @ligo-sci-collab.bsky.social - Virgo - KAGRA Collaboration received an award, instituted by the Laboratory of Experimental Sciences of Foligno, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the first detection of gravitational waves.

April Fools' Day! This post was an April Fools joke, thank you for having fun with us 🥳 Although we didn't install 300 balloons on Virgo's arms this year we will indeed celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first detection, with many events. Keep following us to find out 😉

In addition, for the entire year, all children visiting the interferometer will be given a balloon ‘customised’ with a gravitational wave event and filled by EGO's “balloonists”.

The installation of balloons is visible at great distances 👀 advertising Virgo’s presence even to those who had not noticed its long mauve arms until now.

Crucial was also the contribution of the department of EGO that monitors Virgo's surroundings, thanks to whose alerts it will be possible to temporarily ‘lower’ the balloons in the event of adverse environmental conditions, such as, for example, strong winds.

Virgo's super-sophisticated pumps have been exceptionally adapted to perform a continuous cycle of pumping helium into the balloons, capable of guaranteeing their tightness for many months.

This was made possible by the sophisticated pumping technologies developed to create the vacuum of the Virgo interferometer, the largest volume of ultra high vacuum in Europe.

The installation will remain visible until the end of 2025, and will also set another record as the most ‘long-lived’ installation of this nature ever.

300 helium balloons have been anchored along the two 3-kilometre arms of the Virgo interferometer in the Cascina countryside in Pisa: one dedicated to each of the three hundred gravitational signals observed from 2015 to date by the @ligo-sci-collab.bsky.social - Virgo - KAGRA global network.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the first detection of a gravitational wave signal, on September 14th 2015, the largest installation of flying balloons ever made was inaugurated today at the European Gravitational Observatory in Cascina 🎈🎈🎈

The workshop was a great success, with about 50 students participating, and the intention is to repeat this experience again, perhaps also in other cities and countries!