  The nascent field of gravitational-wave astronomy offers many opportunities
for effective and inspirational astronomy outreach. Gravitational waves, the
"ripples in space-time" predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity,
are produced by some of the most energetic and dramatic phenomena in the
cosmos, including black holes, neutron stars and supernovae. The detection of
gravitational waves will help to address a number of fundamental questions in
physics, from the evolution of stars and galaxies to the origin of dark energy
and the nature of space-time itself. Moreover, the cutting-edge technology
developed to search for gravitational waves is pushing back the frontiers of
many fields, from lasers and materials science to high performance computing,
and thus provides a powerful showcase for the attractions and challenges of a
career in science and engineering. For several years a worldwide network of
ground-based laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors has been fully
operational, including the two LIGO detectors in the United States. These
detectors are already among the most sensitive scientific instruments on the
planet and in the next few years their sensitivity will achieve further
significant improvement. Those developments promise to open an exciting new
window on the Universe, heralding the arrival of gravitational-wave astronomy
as a revolutionary, new observational field. In this paper we describe the
extensive program of public outreach activities already undertaken by the LIGO
Scientific Collaboration, and a number of special events which we are planning
for IYA2009.
