Re: The explanation of interference is slightly wrong in the article...
Not nitpicking, just trying to wrap my mind around the whole thing: if a gravitational wave passes through the detector, in other words through the path of the laser beam, and that wave compresses spacetime (which I understand to be a reversable/temporary effect) between the laser and the mirror - wouldn't that mean that, from the perspective of the laser, the mirror did move?
Anyway, I'm utterly amazed at the engineering that must have went into the detector. Filtering out noise and environmental factors alone... I did some experimental stress analysis using laser interference around 1990 at university. You can detect really small dimensional changes with that, but setting up the test rig was always a pain.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
