Kendra Pierre-Louis writes for Motherboard about the work behind the LIGO team's detection of gravitational waves. Pierre-Louis explains that in the 1960s, Prof. Rainer Weiss was teaching a class on gravitational physics and “devised a method that he felt was theoretically more rigorous, using a clock and laser beams” to detect gravitational waves.
In an article for Sky & Telescope, Robert Naeye writes about how the first detection of gravitational waves unleashes new possibilities for observing additional events in the universe. "This is the end of the silent-movie era in astronomy,” explains Senior Research Scientist Erik Katsavounidis.
Professors Matthew Evans and Nergis Mavalvala speak with CBS Boston about the LIGO Scientific Collaboration’s findings. “We heard, essentially, the largest thing that nature could produce and that means we are only barely not deaf. We’re just starting to detect things,” says Evans.
In an interview with WCVB’s Pam Cross, Professors Matthew Evans and Nergis Mavalvala describe the sounds of the recently detected gravitational waves. “We can listen to things happening in the universe, and this first signal is like the first big bump in the night,” Evans says.
David Shoemaker, director of MIT’s LIGO Lab, speaks with AFP about the day that the LIGO team detected gravitational waves. "It was just at the beginning of this run, when we were all ready to go…that the gravitational wave was observed," he said. "So it was a very exciting moment for us and it took us perfectly by surprise."
In an article and video, USA Today explores the significance of the first detection of gravitational waves. “We have now discovered something that most people don’t see because they don’t have a gravitational wave antenna, but they learn now from us that these things exist and they will learn more about this,” explains Prof. Rainer Weiss.
The New Yorker’s Nicola Twilley writes about the history of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. “Most of us thought that, when we ever saw such a thing, it would be something that you would need many, many computers and calculations to drag out of the noise,” explains Prof. Rainer Weiss.
Prof. Matthew Evans speaks with Ari Daniels of PRI’s The World about the successful detection of gravitational waves. "It’s as if we had an enormous hearing aide, which let us pick up the sounds that the universe has been producing — we just have been deaf to these sounds up until now," Evans says.
In an article for The Boston Globe, David Abel speaks with a number of MIT researchers involved in the successful hunt for gravitational waves. “For the first time, we’ve been able to listen to the sounds that the universe has been transmitting to us from the beginning of time,” explains Prof. Nergis Mavalvala.
Prof. Nergis Mavalvala speaks with Meghna Chakrabarti, host of WBUR’s Radio Boston, about the efforts behind the detection of gravitational waves. “This is just the start,” explains Mavalvala. “These detectors are going to get better and we are just going to listen to more and more music from the universe.”
Reuters reporters Scott Malone and Will Dunham report on the significance of scientists detecting gravitational waves. "We are really witnessing the opening of a new tool for doing astronomy," explains Prof. Nergis Mavalvala. "We have turned on a new sense. We have been able to see and now we will be able to hear as well."
An international team of scientists, including researchers from MIT, has detected gravitational waves, reports Joel Achenbach and Rachel Feltman for The Washington Post. The detection inaugurates “a new era of astronomy in which gravitational waves are tools for studying the most mysterious and exotic objects in the universe.”
In an article for Ozy about MIT alumna Sabrina Pasterski, Farah Halime writes about Pasterski’s research on black holes, and the nature of gravity and spacetime, all of which “has the world of physics abuzz.” Halime notes that Pasterski, “might be the new Einstein.”
The Economist reviews Prof. Marcia Bartusiak’s new book, “Black Hole: How an Idea Abandoned by Newtonians, Hated by Einstein and Gambled on by Hawking Became Loved.” “Ms Bartusiak weaves scientific concepts to create a portrait of the scientific institution itself, showing how its norms and personalities served to shape the path taken by the idea.”
Dennis Overbye of The New York Times speaks with Dr. Sheperd Doeleman about his work attempting to capture the first picture of a black hole. “If something is dancing around the edge of the black hole, it doesn’t get any more fundamental than that,” says Doeleman. “Hopefully we’ll find something amazing.”