Purdue holding special seminar on detection of gravitational waves

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy will hold a seminar on Wednesday (Feb. 17) on the recent discovery by an international research team that it had heard and recorded the sound of two black holes colliding, as predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

 The Special Astrophysics Seminar will be at 3:30 p.m. in the Physics Building, Room 203. The event is free and open to the public.

The seminar will be led by Maxim Lyutikov, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The international researchers using the Large Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves on Feb. 11. These ripples in the fabric of space-time were proposed by Albert Einstein in 1916.

The signal – from two black holes colliding – had been captured on Sept. 14, 2015. 

Media Contact: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu  

Source: Maxim Lyutikov, 765-494-5396, lyutikov@purdue.edu