A scientist with the LIGO Laboratory in Caltech, Pasadena, California will discuss the detection of gravitational waves during a lecture at the University of Hawaii at Hilo on Tuesday, May 10. Dr. David Reitze will be speaking from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
In late 2015, scientists observed the collision and fusion of two black holes by directly measuring the gravitational waves emitted during their collision. This detection, from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration, comes 100 years after Einstein developed his revolutionary General Theory of Relativity that predicted the existence of gravitational waves, and 50 years after scientists began searching for them.
This discovery has truly profound implications so join Gemini Observatory and the UH-Hilo Astronomy and Physics Department to explore how scientists made the detection and why gravitational wave astronomy promises to change our understanding of the high energy universe. Dr. Reitze will also share how complementary observations of gravitational wave events using telescopes on Maunakea will shed new light on energetic events in the universe.