In the Media

Ten years after scientists detected gravitational waves for the first time using the LIGO detectors, Rachel Feltman of Scientific American's “Science Quickly” podcast visits the MIT LIGO Lab to speak with Prof. Matt Evans about the future of gravitational wave research and why Cosmic Explorer, the next generation gravitational wave observatory, will help unearth secrets of the early universe. “We get to look back towards the beginning of the universe, in some sense, with gravitational waves as we look at these sources that are farther and farther away,” says Evans. “With Cosmic Explorer we’ll have not just one or two but hundreds of thousands of sources from the distant universe. So it’s a really exciting way to explore the universe as a whole by looking at this stellar graveyard.”