UChicago Physicists Help Decipher Gravitational Waves

Daniel Holz, associate professor in physics at the University of Chicago, explains the historic discovery of gravitational waves—ripples in the fabric of spacetime—by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), announced on February 11, 2016. In addition to Holz, the members of UChicago’s LIGO team are Ben Farr, a McCormick Fellow in the Enrico Fermi Institute, and graduate students Hsin-Yu Chen and Zoheyr Doctor.

The UChicago physicists played a significant role in analyzing data from LIGO, helping to characterize the two colliding black holes that produced the signal that the facility detected on September 14, 2015.

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[Ozonencb]

*Question* :

How fast would the black holes would be needing to travel to actually merge together?

[DriverrRon]

I see gravity displacement waves in all the spiral tales in most distant galaxies. Black holes make the galaxies' tales... I call it the finger print of dark matter...

[.]

what i dont understand is how can you make your voice sound like an auto tune. pretty cool

[Neonagi]

Once a way to manipulate the waves is found now that it's readily testable, easily available flying/hover vehicles and warp drives here we come.

[Gregorillaz]

What I don't understand is how you can say this event produces more energy than the entire universe combined ?! How do you know ?! Don't black holes merge all over space, all the time ? Given this is the only time we've measured such an event, how do we know it's the most powerful in the univers ??!!!