Friday, October 16th, 2006

 

Dr. Lee Lindblom, Caltech

" Gravitational Wave Astronomy "

2:00 pm in room P-148

Einstein's theory of gravitation predicts that disturbances in the gravitational field can propagate as waves traveling across space at the speed of light. A new generation of instruments sensitive enough to detect gravitational waves from strong astrophysical sources in distant galaxies has recently begun to collect data. Once detected these waves will provide astronomers with a completely new way to view and study distant objects in the universe. This talk will present the basics of this new field of gravitational wave astronomy: What are gravitational waves? How are gravitational waves detected? How are gravitational wave emitted? What kinds of objects emit strong gravitational waves? Have gravitational waves been detected yet?