1967-2016 LIGO

LIGO

• The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
• detects gravity waves using laser interferometry
• and has launched a new branch of astronomy
• detecting the origin of collapsed binary systems,
• two black holes or neutron stars
• circling and merging into one.
• LIGO is able to detect gravitation waves
• with a sensitivity of under ten-thousandth
• of the diameter of a proton,
• and can locate astronomical events using observatories
• in Hanford Washington and Livingston Louisiana.
• Future gravitational-wave observatories
• in western India and western Australia,
• in addition to the gravitational-wave detectors
• in Sarstedt Germany, Cascoma Italy,
• and Gifu Prefecture Japan,
• will complete a global network that can act together
• to detect supernovae, rotating neutron stars,
• or more exotic events undetectable by other means.

Infinite sea of spacetime

• We used to believe in gravity;
• we thought it was a force acting between two bodies.
• Now we know it’s just a side effect
• of distortions of spacetime caused by bodies with mass,
• and that spacetime is like a liquid
• that can be disturbed by sudden movements.
• We even used to say “the fabric of spacetime,”
• but now we know it’s four-dimensional.
• It’s not like the surface of a lake,
• but like being submersed in an infinite sea.
• Try not to think of a wave on a surface; think instead
• of an explosion that makes a noise underwater.
• Spacetime is disturbed not only by masses in motion
• but by its own disturbances, pushing and pulling itself.

Gravity dilates time

• A clock high above earth runs faster
• than an identical clock on the ground.
• This is a metaphor for inebriation and fantasy.
• Boring conversations last longer the closer you get.
• Could it be that the psychology of Earthlings
• is related to the general relativity, or
• could this be only a coincidence?