Searching for Gravitational Waves With Ligo

Dr. Beverly Berger
National Science Foundation

Darwin 103
3:00 PM

Dr. Beverly Berger, the Former Program Director for LIGO Project, National Science Foundation talks about when massive objects move in space, they cause space (and time) to ripple. Even if these ripples are produced by the falling together and merger of two black holes, the ripples (or gravitational waves) reaching the earth would cause a very tiny effect---equivalent to the change in the distance from the earth to the sun by the diameter of a single atom. Astonishingly, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) is designed to detect these tiny ripples and to observe gravitational waves for the first time.