Gravitational Waves 101: How to Hear the Universe

In 2015 scientists working at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave observatory, or LIGO, detected gravitational waves for the first time. But how did they do it? What is a gravitational wave? And why is confirming something that Albert Einstein predicted a hundred years ago one of the greatest scientific achievements of the past century?

HUGE Thanks to the LIGO team and the National Science Foundation for funding amazing projects like LIGO

The University of Chicago LIGO group is comprised of Daniel Holz, Ben Farr, Hsin-Yu Chen, and Zoheyr Doctor, and they all contributed to the results described in this video.

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Music by:

Rob Scallon

Todd Umhoefer (Old Earth)

Images & Video Credits:

LIGO video and black hole simulations courtesy of LIGO and Caltech

Spaceballs, MGM, 1987
Star Wars: A New Hope, 20th Century Fox, 1977
Star Trek: First Contact, Paramount Pictures, 1996

Ferdinand Schmutzer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

[manicpixiedckgirl]

All my life I've been told that science tries to explain away the beauty and mystery in the universe, but look at that guy's face (Daniel Holz). As a scientist myself, that's a face I see a lot - the wonder and awe at the universe itself and how it works. It seems to me like science doesn't take anything away from it, but adds to it.

[jaimie]

Breaking News:
The LIGO team has just announced the *second detection of gravitational waves*. This time the source was two colliding black holes (with masses 14 times and 8 times the mass of the sun) at a distance of 1.4 billion light years. And, for those who like serendipity, the signal was received on Christmas Day, 2015.

This second detection emphasizes that the era of gravitational wave astronomy has begun.

[cajagato]

Finally, Finally! A full explanation of this event. Thank you, guys. Thank you, thank you.

[menrollingdown]

Beautiful video as always, guys. Keep up the incredible work

[steevf]

Speaking of sound...let's pause for a moment and appreciate the amazing feet of sound engineering you guys pulled off by filming this with audio in such windy conditions with little to no wind noise. :)

[senor_sid]

Wow... I was captivated for the entire 16 minutes, fantastic video guys! Daniel was really interesting to listen to.

[carloscrespo]

That man looked like he was so excited he couldn't explain with words what he wanted to say. Definitely interesting (and good) stuff.

[Billywashere]

Keep the awesome video coming so stoked you guys could make these!

[skepticbat]

I love you guys' science videos because you really make this information easier to understand for people like me who are more art/literature oriented but who still find science wonderfully compelling.

Also, Ryan was great! Can't wait to see him in front of the camera more.

[MusiCaninesTheMusicalDogs]

Great video! I thought it would be just another video about gravitational waves, but the interview made it unique! It was awesome! Guys like Daniel and team are the kind people who I see as true heroes of mankind!

[CommanderX]

This really is the good stuff. Thank you.

[Billywashere]

I knew this was a big deal but this video helped me understand how BIG of deal it was, hearing the beginning of the universe that's in the most real meaning of the word truly awesome!

[TisiphoneSeraph]

This is the kind of shit that makes me excited to be alive in this era. Really uplifting.

[MidtownSkyport]

congrats on getting such good sound with all that wind. Seriously.

[danheidel]

The results are much better than expected. In the next 10 years or so, we should be able to have a space-based gravity wave observatory that is much more sensitive than LIGO!

[plm]

brilliant video! More of this and your channel will be just fine guys ;)! Keep up the good work, bring on the science content. XD

[Nesetroll]

Knowable things are divided in three categories:
1) The things we know
2) The things we don't know
3) The things we don't know that we don't know

[davishall]

Just a note, you occasionally say "gravity waves". This is a different thing from "gravitational waves".

[chasarr]

This video was uploaded before we discovered the second one!

[chasarr]

Have you given up the playlist format?