Interferometers

[samvara]

Trekked down to UWA with mynxii for the Dean's Lecture: Detecting gravitational-waves with interferometers   - Giant detectors, precision measurement, and the search for the elusive waves delivered by Professor Nergis Mavalvala and saw some very cool things.

Interesting trivia includes:

• massive objects need to be asymmetrical to propagate gravity waves
• gravity waves pass through mass (as opposed to light waves which bounce, scatter or absorb)
• gravity wave frequencies are so low they are almost in the audible range (imagine listening to the universe, literally).

Also heard a little more about LISA the Space Antenna - check out the Ripples in Space-Time animation to see an artists depiction of the gravity waves created when two massive black holes orbit, collide and merge.

Professor Nergis was fabulous and energetic and managed to make some graphs and equations pretty darn sexy. She also does a very impressive simulation of the sound of a binary inspiral as heard by a gravity wave detector.