juliensimon/gravitational-wave-events

---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "Gravitational Wave Events (GWOSC)"
language:
- en
description: "All confirmed gravitational wave events from LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA observing runs, sourced from the Gravitational-Wave Open Science Center (GWOSC). Updated weekly."
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
tags:
- gravitational-waves
- ligo
- virgo
- kagra
- gwosc
- black-hole
- neutron-star
- astronomy
- open-data
size_categories:
- n<1K
---

# Gravitational Wave Events (GWOSC)


All confirmed gravitational wave events from the [Gravitational-Wave Open Science Center](https://gwosc.org/)
(GWOSC), covering LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA observing runs. Currently **263** events
across 12 catalogs (GWTC-1-confident, GWTC-1-marginal, GWTC-2.1-auxiliary, GWTC-2.1-confident, GWTC-2.1-marginal, GWTC-3-confident, GWTC-3-marginal, GWTC-4.0, IAS-O3a, Initial_LIGO_Virgo, O3_IMBH_marginal, O4_Discovery_Papers).

## Dataset description

Each row represents one gravitational wave event (merger of compact objects such as black holes
and/or neutron stars). Parameters include component masses, distance, spins, signal-to-noise
ratio, and astrophysical probability. For each measured parameter, lower and upper uncertainty
bounds are provided where available.

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `name` | string | Event name (e.g. GW150914, GW230529) |
| `gps` | float | GPS time of the event |
| `catalog` | string | Source catalog short name |
| `run` | string | Observing run (O1/O2, O3a, O3b, O4a, ...) |
| `mass_1` | float | Primary source mass (solar masses) |
| `mass_1_lower/upper` | float | 90% credible interval bounds |
| `mass_2` | float | Secondary source mass (solar masses) |
| `mass_2_lower/upper` | float | 90% credible interval bounds |
| `chirp_mass` | float | Chirp mass (solar masses) |
| `luminosity_distance` | float | Luminosity distance (Mpc) |
| `redshift` | float | Cosmological redshift |
| `chi_eff` | float | Effective inspiral spin parameter |
| `network_snr` | float | Network matched-filter SNR |
| `p_astro` | float | Probability of astrophysical origin |
| `far` | float | False alarm rate (Hz) |
| `final_mass` | float | Remnant mass (solar masses) |
| `final_spin` | float | Remnant dimensionless spin |

All parameters with uncertainties also have `_lower` and `_upper` columns.

## Quick stats

- **263** gravitational wave events
- **12** catalogs: GWTC-1-confident, GWTC-1-marginal, GWTC-2.1-auxiliary, GWTC-2.1-confident, GWTC-2.1-marginal, GWTC-3-confident, GWTC-3-marginal, GWTC-4.0, IAS-O3a, Initial_LIGO_Virgo, O3_IMBH_marginal, O4_Discovery_Papers
- Observing runs: Initial, O1/O2, O3, O3a, O3b, O4, O4a
- Median primary mass: **35.3** solar masses
- Median luminosity distance: **2100** Mpc

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/gravitational-wave-events", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Binary black hole mergers (both masses > 3 solar masses)
bbh = df[(df["mass_1"] > 3) & (df["mass_2"] > 3)]
print(f"{len(bbh)} binary black hole events")

# Closest events
closest = df.nsmallest(5, "luminosity_distance")[["name", "luminosity_distance", "mass_1", "mass_2"]]

# Events by observing run
df["run"].value_counts()
```

## Data source

All data comes from the [GWOSC Event API](https://gwosc.org/eventapi/), the official
open data portal for LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA gravitational wave detections.

## Update schedule

Weekly on Monday at 17:30 UTC via [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets).

## Related datasets

- [space-track-satcat](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-track-satcat) -- NORAD Satellite Catalog
- [space-launch-log](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/space-launch-log) -- Global launch history

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{gravitational_wave_events,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {Gravitational Wave Events (GWOSC)},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gravitational-wave-events},
note = {Based on LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA data from the Gravitational-Wave Open Science Center (GWOSC)}
}
```

## License

[CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)