The Cosmic Ballet of Black Holes & Gravitational Waves

The Cosmic Ballet of Black Holes & Gravitational Waves

One hundred years after Einstein’s formulation of General Relativity, Advanced LIGO has detected for the first time gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime that are produced by cataclysmic astrophysical event.  

1.3 billion years ago, two black holes inspiraled and merged, releasing a power that is 50 times that of the visible universe, in the form of gravitational waves. Since then, the waves have traveled through the Universe and reached Earth on the morning of September 14, 2015.  In this talk I will describe this groundbreaking discovery, what we have learned from it, and discuss why this is opening a new field of gravitational wave astronomy. 

Event Details

Date/Time:

  • Date: 
    Monday, February 15, 2016 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm