Exploring Gravity Waves!

Dr. Marc Favata of Montclair State University will be the guest speaker at the April meeting of the North Jersey Astronomical Group. His presentation will cover the very first detection of gravity waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

Over a billion years ago in a distant galaxy, two black holes merged together. That event produced a violent disturbance in the fabric of spacetime -- gravitational waves which propagated throughout the universe. Those waves eventually reached the Earth on September 14, 2015, where they were detected by the twin LIGO detectors.

The detection of these waves confirms a key prediction of Einstein's theory of relativity and opens up a new way of "listening" to the universe. He will discuss the meaning of Einstein's description of gravity, the history of LIGO, the challenges that had to be overcome to detect gravitational waves, and some of the details and significance of their detection.

This meeting and free presentation will be held at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 13, Room 110 in the CELS building, Montclair State University,1 Normal Ave, Montclair, NJ 07043. All are welcomed! For more information and directions see: njastro.org.

North Jersey Astronomical Group
P.O. Box 1472
Clifton, NJ 07015-1472
973-594-6524