LIGO consists of two 2.5 miles interferometers (similar to what is used to read bar codes at the supermarket, only bigger) which can detect the signal from merging black holes and neutron stars. After traveling for billions of years these signals reach Earth and move the LIGO mirrors by less then 1/10,000ths of the diameter of a proton. The detection of these signals allows LIGO to test the fundamental laws of physics and probe the history of the universe.

The MIT facility is used to test and prototype the full scale LIGO equipment before they are installed in the observatories.