20 November 2015
"How and Why We Try to Observe Gravitational Waves"
The next Google Hangout in our Future in Space series is today at 3:00 pm ET. If you don't have a Google account, use the YouTube link to participate.
One hundred years ago this month, Albert Einstein revolutionized our understanding of gravity: space and time were no longer a passive stage on which the universe evolved, but instead a dynamic participant.
Perhaps Einstein's most fascinating prediction is gravitational waves - disturbances in spacetime that are generated by cataclysms such as the merger of two black holes. Scientists are on the cusp of making the first direct detection of these waves using ground-based interferometers and are making the first steps towards building gravitational wave observatories in space. These efforts promise to usher in an entirely new field of astronomy.
Join Tony Darnell, Alberto Conti, and Harley Thronson along with guests Shane Larson (Adler Planetarium/Northwestern University), Joey Shapiro-Key (University of Texas), and Ira Thorpe (NASA Goddard) for a discussion of the science and technology behind gravitational waves and the instruments used to observe them.
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