Quick Questions on Virgo: “What is EGO?”

This post is part of a series about quick questions and answers about the Virgo experiment and the science of gravitational waves. Do you have a quick question? Tell us and we will reply!

What is EGO?

The European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) is a French-Italian Consortium founded by a joint agreement between the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN). Both these funding agencies equally finance the running of the Consortium since its foundation in December 2000, through the construction of Virgo until 2003, and during the subsequent phase of data taking, to 2011. In 2009, EGO was pleased to welcome the Dutch Nationaal instituut voor subatomaire fysica (Nikhef) as Observer within its Council. The EGO site, located near the town of Cascina in the province of Pisa, includes the area occupied by the Virgo interferometer and its premises. The main purpose of EGO is to ensure the construction of Advanced Virgo and to guarantee its operation, maintenance, and upgrade, as well as the exploitation of scientific data. EGO is integrated to the Virgo Collaboration by providing support to the experiment and is responsible for the site of the Virgo interferometer. EGO also promotes the study on gravitation in Europe.

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