The LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Collaboration has expanded its map of the invisible universe. On May 26, 2026, the group released a new catalog of gravitational wave events, adding 161 detections recorded between April 2024 and January 2025. According to Caltech, this update brings the total number of detected signals to 390.
A Surge in Cosmic Collisions
The release of the GWTC-5.0 catalog more than doubles previous detection counts, Caltech reports. The findings are substantial. The collaboration highlighted three primary achievements: the clearest gravitational wave signal ever recorded, the most precise sky localization for a source to date, and evidence for second-generation black holes.
The LVK network—comprising LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA—is now observing the cosmos at a relentless pace. According to MIT News, the network routinely detects roughly one black hole merger every three days. During the current fourth science run, the LVK discovered more than 200 candidate black hole mergers, more than double the amount captured across the first three runs.
Measuring the Width of a Proton
To catch these ripples in space-time, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) relies on extreme precision. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by Caltech and MIT, the system uses twin detectors in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington.
The scale of the measurement is staggering. Mirrors spaced 4 kilometers apart detect length changes smaller than 1/10,000 the width of a proton. MIT News describes this as 1/700 trillionth the width of a human hair. Unlike telescopes that capture light or sensors that track high-energy neutrinos, LIGO allows researchers to sense the universe through the gravitational warping of space-time.
From a U.S. Project to a Global Web
The journey began on Sept. 14, 2015, when LIGO recorded its first direct detection: a pair of merging black holes whose signal traveled 1.3 billion years to reach Earth. What started as a U.S.-centric effort has since evolved into a global operation.
LIGO now coordinates with Italy’s Virgo detector and Japan’s KAGRA. The network continues to grow. On April 23, 2026, Caltech announced that LIGO-India has broken ground on a new observatory, which will become the fifth gravitational-wave facility in the world.
The Architects of the Invisible
The project remains the largest and most ambitious ever funded by the NSF. It was conceived and built by Caltech and MIT, a feat of engineering and theory that earned three of the team’s founders the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017.
The laureates recognized for their contributions to the detector and the observation of gravitational waves include Rainer Weiss, professor emeritus of physics at MIT; Barry Barish, the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Caltech; and Kip Thorne, the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, at Caltech.
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