AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition
    IPF on Mesoscale Science and Technology of Materials and Metamaterials Tuesday Sessions
       Session IPF+MS-TuA

Invited Paper IPF+MS-TuA11
The Universe in Motion: Listening to Gravitational Waves with LIGO

Tuesday, October 20, 2015, 5:40 pm, Room 210F

Session: Frontiers in Physics
Presenter: Michael Zucker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Correspondent: Click to Email
Almost 100 years ago, Einstein showed that traces of matter and energy’s gyrations are continuously broadcast throughout the universe, in the form of gravitational waves: ripples in the underlying geometry of space. Fresh from a major upgrade, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) is now poised to detect and decode these broadcasts, opening a new era of physics and astronomy. I will talk about why LIGO is so different from other observatories, and describe some of the daunting technological challenges we’ve overcome to help us realize Einstein’s vision.