World Science Festival — Season 1, Episode 6: Gravitational Waves: A New Era of Astronomy Begins
Documentary, Talk • 30 min • 2 seasons, 24 episodes
Episode synopsis
On September 14th, 2015, a ripple in the fabric of space, created by the violent collision of two distant black holes over a billion years ago, washed across the Earth. As it did, two laser-based detectors, 50 years in the making – one in Louisiana and the other in Washington State – momentarily twitched, confirming a century-old prediction by Albert Einstein and marking the opening of a new era in astronomy. Join some of the very scientists responsible for this most anticipated discovery of our age and see how gravitational waves will be used to explore the universe like never before.
About World Science Festival
The World Science Festival gathers great minds in science and the arts to produce live and digital content that allows a broad general audience to engage with scientific discoveries. Their mission is to cultivate a general public informed by science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future.
More episodes from Season 1
- E1Infinite Worlds: A Journey through Parallel Universes
- E2Quantum Reality: Space, Time, and Entanglement
- E3A Thin Sheet of Reality: The Universe as a Hologram
- E4Beyond Beauty: The Predictive Power of Symmetry
- E5Engineering the Brain: Deploying a New Neural Toolkit
- E7Hidden Dimensions: Exploring Hyperspace
- E8Neutrinos, Matter, and Antimatter: The Yin Yang of the Big Bang
- E9How Music Affects Your Brain: Notes on the Folds
- E10Measure for Measure: Quantum Physics and Reality
- E11The Illusion of Certainty: Risk, Probability, and Chance
- E12The Matter of Antimatter: Answering the Cosmic Riddle of Existence