Gravitational waves and spacetime fireworks
29 May 2019, 6:00 pm–7:30 pm
We are thrilled to announce that Professor Alberto Vecchio (University of Birmingham) will be giving this year's SPINS-UK public lecture titled "Gravitational waves and spacetime fireworks: mapping collisions of black holes and neutron stars throughout the cosmos"
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
Silvia Zane
Location
-
Harrie Massey25Gordon StreetLondonWC1H 0AYUnited Kingdom
Gravitational waves were first detected in 2015, a hundred years since Einstein predicted this form of radiation as a fundamental consequence of his theory of general relativity. This first observation marks the beginning of a new era in astronomy and of explorations of some of the most violent phenomena in the cosmos. We have discovered binary black holes, which we now know are abundant in our Universe. We have observed for the first time the collision of a pair of neutron stars that has set in motion a sequence of remarkable events tracked by astronomers across the electro-magnetic spectrum. This is just the beginning of a new journey to unveil some of the best kept secrets of the Universe which is likely to provide many more surprises in the years to come.
Image credit: NSF/LIGO/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet