The Royal Institution
Sheila Rowan explains the nature of gravitational waves, where they come from, how we detected them, and what the future of this new era in astronomy might look like.
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Watch the Q&A here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYc2rvRzrxU
A century ago, Albert Einstein realised that in his new model for space and time in our Universe (his ‘General Theory of Relativity’), space could be stretching and squashing in response to the motion of objects. These ripples in space-time – ‘Gravitational waves’ – are produced by some of the most energetic and dramatic phenomena in our universe, including black holes, neutron stars and supernovae.
Close to 100 years after the prediction of the existence of gravitational waves, the advanced detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) recently detected such signals for the first time, starting a new era in astronomy. Sheila Rowan explains the nature of gravitational waves, describes what sources out in the Universe can produce them, explains how they are detected and what the future of this new era in astronomy might look like.
Sheila Rowan is a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at University of Glasgow. Her research focusses on gravitational wave detection on the ground and in space. Her programme currently includes studies of ultra sensitive mechanical systems; investigation of materials of ultra-low mechanical loss and construction of mechanically-stable optical systems for interferometric applications.
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Amazing talk, amazing talker. I want more from her!
Great talk, thanks. But ffs if the speaker is describing something on a slide could you please show the slide at the same time!
If we received gravitational waves here on earth does it mean that the gravity of said black holes affects us? Does it mean they will slowly pull us towards themselves….?
Very informative lecture… Thanks for uploading this…
The Graviton has not been found yet. Gravity may well not be a force as the others described by the Quantum. Gravity could in fact be caused by time distortion. This time distortion causing an acceleration (dV/dt) and in turn making a force on objects with mass.
Flawed theory and too many will simply drink the koolaid refusing to admit they can't tell. Its like the story about the king with no clothes. People just nod and agree but the sad thing is the flaws don't require much to detect. People are too lazy to think.
Maybe the thing we are missing, is a bit of formula to adjust for time in relation to the matter of our universe. I.e. we have no law or theory of what time means to a part of a Galaxy that is closer to the black hole and one that is more towards the outer edge. We believe that what happens at the singularity is that time stands still, for the observer, if such a thing may be hypothetically fathomed, as the observer would enter this situation faster than the human brain could process. So we would infer that the outer edge of the galaxy considers time differently than the portion surrounding the black hole, even if only by the inverse square law.
I am skeptical to found the gravitational wave news….Because there was and is too many other disturbe for measuring the wave…
The chirp emitted when two black holes collide? "ehhHHH!"
Coincidence?
52:40
great job. thank you!
What gravitational wave is that they are talking about while gravity does not exist?
The detector is essentially a single pixel. Need a bunch of them around the world so the world is a big compound eye 🙂
Very nice quality, thx! Wish the question period was included. Often that is my favorite part of a science talk.
Boring…
lol theres no such thing as gravitational waves. these people are wasting billions of taxpayer dollars so they can have a job. i suggest they learn plasma theory and electricity
3:20 The gravity at a neutron star isn't even that high. I think that the gravity at the surface of a neutron star is something like 1011 times that of Earth.
32:55 That one looks more like a car accident than a wild fire.
There was a young lady called Bright,
She could travel faster than light.
She went out one day, in a relative way –
And returned the previous night!
I was there. So interesting even the second part with all the questions from the public.
im atheist, im no religion, i hate them all. what you refer to as gravity is a form of dielectric acceleration
Did anyone else find it annoying that she kept transitioning to new points by using the words "and again"? You can't start a new idea by saying "Again" followed by something you haven't referenced yet right? Again, the idea of gravitational waves is mind blowing.
The Scottish accent hooked me from the start lol great lecture
Scottish much?
I see in the comments, the viewers are at the forefront of scientific debate.
she says "produce" gravitational waves but isn't it that these sources CAUSE waves to OCCUR in the gravitational field? I don't think this is nit picking. language needs to be very clear for non-PhDs like me to understand. am I wrong?
Supercomputer animation of the two black hole collision produce FAKE gravitational waves.
If that was a gravitational wave, why was only one found ? Shouldn't there have been a whole series of them ? How can you be so sure something else didn't cause the inferometer to register the blip ?
I'd entertain her gravitational wave any day.
Thanks Sheila. Fascinating!
once you see that Mitsubishi logo