The Discovery of Gravitational Waves and the High Energy Universe

One hundred years ago Albert Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity, which predicts the kinds of changes in the universe that produce gravitational waves–which travel at the speed of light, but are much harder to detect than light waves. On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) received the first confirmed gravitational wave signals. The event that produced them was the merger of two distant and massive black holes that were in mutual orbit. A second confirmed detection (two different black holes getting together) occurred on December 26, 2015. LIGO's exciting discoveries provide direct proof of predictions made by Einstein and have launched the new field of astronomy. Dr. Cominsky will present an introduction to LIGO, to gravitational waves and how they were detected, and to black holes.

Speaker: Lynn Cominsky, Sonoma State University