Space Time Ripples and Einstein's Legacy
Setup
Headline news was made in 2016 when the detection of gravitational waves, caused by the collision of two black holes, was confirmed by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). And earlier this month, another ripple was detected! The observed ripples in the fabric of space-time validate a key prediction in Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. One hundred years old, the theory continues to astonish scientists with how correct it is. LIGO’s discovery signals a new era of astronomy and a new way of understanding the warped side of the universe.
Speakers
-
Janna LevinPhysicist and astronomer
-
Nergis MavalvalaCurtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics and Associate Dep...
-
Lisa RandallProfessor of Physics, Harvard University; Author, Dark Matter and the...
-
Priyamvada NatarajanProfessor, Astronomy and Physics Departments, Yale University
-
Ira FlatowHost and Executive Producer, "Science Friday," PRI
- 2016 Festival
- Science
Gravitational Waves 101
Albert Einstein famously predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916 based on his theory of relativity, and since then many not steeped in theoretical physics have struggled to understand even the basics of his theory. Watch as physicists Nergis Mavalvala, Janna Levin, and Lisa Randall team up to explain the concept of gravitational waves for a lay audience:
LIGO proved what Einstein could only calculate
Although Einstein’s calculations told him that gravitational waves must exist in theory, he had no way of actually proving his own calculations were correct. Scientists have doggedly tried to find proof ever since, without success — that is, until LIGO. Standing for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, LIGO allowed scientists to collect the proof that had eluded them for nearly a century.
How Does it work?
These aren’t gravitational fluctuations from our cosmic neighborhood, though. When two black holes 30 times more massive than our own collide millions of lightyears away, the change that LIGO measures on Earth is smaller than the width of proton.
The success of LIGO is a case study in perseverance
History has relatively few examples of decades-long projects ending in success, and LIGO stands out as an instance where over 50 years of research, funding battles, and technological limitations resulted in an unequivocal triumph.
Big IdeaThere is this sense that this obscure experiment that nobody had ever heard came out of the blue, turned on, and succeeded. It was actually a 50-year campaign. It was a really arduous campaign. There were a lot of battles along the way, and I liken it to a climbing Mount Everest story where not everyone makes it to the top.Janna Levin
Not only were physicists fighting for funding and resources, but they were also tirelessly working out any and all wrinkles in the theoretical calculations. The ability of scientists today to breathlessly interpret the highly complex data sets that LIGO produces rests in no small part on scientists who laid the theoretical groundwork decades before.
If LIGO is is a dream fulfilled, what does the future hold?
If two LIGO facilities can produce such extraordinary results, what could a network of LIGO facilities accomplish? And what would be the benefit of a LIGO setup floating through space? These are projects that are in the works — watch as Priyamvada Natarajan and Lisa Randall talk through implications of these innovations:
Learn More
Additional Information
Resources
Explore More
Science
Since 2014, Aspen Ideas: Health has welcomed over 700 inspiring women leaders to our stages to share their bold approaches to better health. In honor of Women's History Month,...
Scientists could actually be close to being able to decode animal communication and figure out what animals are saying to each other. And more astonishingly, we might even fin...
Whether you love setting New Year’s resolutions or ignore them entirely, there’s still a certain mix of nostalgia and excitement over the ending of one year and the possibilit...
A technological future where our brain waves could be monitored and our thoughts decoded and analyzed — sometimes against our will — is not as far away as we think. But our ex...
Setting audacious goals helps to redefine what is achievable in health, medicine, and science. As we deepen understanding of the human genome, unravel the mysteries of the bra...
What does the latest in neuroscience tell us about human health and consciousness? Aspen Ideas Festival speakers explore how biology is being integrated with technology in unp...
At the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival, we dug into some of the most important and fascinating issues of our time, from rebuilding trust in our institutions and the promise and peri...
A.I. can find meaningful patterns in otherwise unintelligible noise, so scientists are starting to wonder: Can A.I. help humans interpret animal sounds? Scientist Karen Bakker...
DOORS OPEN AT 6PM. In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kate Winslet’s character erases painful memories of her ex-boyfriend. Could this be possible in real life...
Stories matter, as do the ways we tell them. Hear from the founder of an audiobook empire and a renowned theoretical physicist on the art and power of capturing and conveying...
The Afternoon of Conversation is the Aspen Ideas Festival's pinnacle programming moment. Over 2,000 people gather in the Benedict Music Tent, an open-air venue with acoustics...
The decline in trust of scientific institutions over the course of the pandemic is manifested in the number of Americans worried about the truth of scientific progress and the...
The mysteries of brain health are hidden deep within the ridges and grooves of the cerebral cortex. Join Mount Sinai Health System neuroscientists in this discussion of new te...
From the first galaxies that grew after the Big Bang, to black holes swallowing their neighbors, to stars and planets being born today in the Cosmic Cliffs, the James Webb Spa...
Featuring three one-on-one conversations, our tenth anniversary closing session is not to be missed! We begin with comedian Iliza Shlesinger, who opens up to bestselling autho...
The world has renewed hope that impactful treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias may finally be on the horizon. While previous therapies have modestly improv...
Vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell are the five human senses most of us are fortunate enough to know intimately. We like to say that intuition is our sixth sense, but Em...
When it comes to biomedical research, Earth’s gravity can be an obstacle, making it harder to program stem cells into viable organs, obscuring the crystalline structure of pro...
The belief that the paralyzed will walk and the deaf will hear is a staple of religion, literature, and myth. Now, technology is actually making that happen. Zeen has designed...
Research that can generate transformative, high-impact biomedical and health breakthroughs, from the molecular to the societal, is gaining traction as the Advanced Research Pr...