桔子视频

Reed Essick, University of Toronto

Jennifer Yee, Harvard University

Ellen Zweibel, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Lieke Van Son, Harvard University

One century following Einstein's prediction of spacetime disturbances and gravitational waves, the laser-enabled special detectors LIGO achieved the most accurate measurement ever made by humans across science and engineering and revealed to us the gravitational-wave signals produced by the most powerful collisions of black holes in the universe. These revolutionary discoveries have given birth to a brand new field of astronomy, a completely new way of sensing the cosmos and exploring its darkest corners. I will review the first direct detections of gravitational waves and what they can teach us about the nature of black holes and other exotic cosmic events.

Black hole-neutron star and neutron star-neutron star mergers are powerful emitters of gravitational waves, and can produce a wide range of bright electromagnetic transients. They also provide us with a remarkable environment to study nuclear interactions in the cold, dense core of neutron stars, and may significantly contribute to the production of many heavy elements whose origin remains unexplained.