Lecture: Listening for Bumps in the Night: Gravitational Waves

Imagine the universe as a vast, silent ocean where the most violent events—the collision of massive black holes—send invisible “shudders” through the very fabric of space-time. To capture these faint whispers from the deep cosmos, the NSF Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) utilizes colossal laser detectors in Washington and Louisiana. These instruments are so sensitive they can detect movements smaller than the width of an atom. After a decade of refining this incredible technology, LIGO made history in 2015 by detecting a collision from 1.3 billion light-years away, forever changing how we explore the deepest mysteries of our universe.

We are delighted to host Keith Thorne, a research physicist who was at the heart of these historic astronomical breakthroughs. After earning his doctorate at Fermilab, Keith joined the LIGO collaboration in 2003 and eventually led the real-time controls and computing groups at the Livingston, Louisiana observatory. His technical leadership was instrumental in the first-ever detection of gravitational waves and the vital system upgrades that followed through 2024. Now retired in Wellsboro, PA, Keith remains a pillar of the local astronomical community through his work with asteroid occultation observations.

This interactive session will be broadcast on our big screen at the Martz-Kohl Observatory and is also available to join online via Zoom. We encourage you to join us in person at the observatory to virtually meet our speaker and participate in our always-lively Q&A session following the talk. If the weather permits, we will conclude the evening with guided tours and viewing opportunities through our premier telescopes. Please remember to dress for the elements; while our classroom is heated for your comfort, the observatory domes are not. For more information and the Zoom link, please visit: https://martzobservatory.org