Episode 618: The Future Of Gravitational Waves. Seeing Every Black Hole Collision In The Observable Universe?

In 2015, scientists discovered the telltale signal from ripples of spacetime sweeping over the Earth. It was the very first direct detection of gravitational waves, generated by the merger of two massive black holes 1.3 billion light-years away. This discovery was the culmination of decades of research and construction of huge instruments called interferometers to detect the warping of spacetime caused by gravitational waves. Today, the most advanced detectors, the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration, have turned up over 50 gravitational wave discoveries - on average one every week - allowing astronomers to perceive the Universe in a completely different way. What new gravitational wave instruments are in the works, and what does the future hold for this relatively new field of study? Our Book is out! https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Today-Ultimate-Viewing-Cosmos/dp/1624145442/ Audio Podcast version: ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2 RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio Weekly email newsletter: https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter Weekly Space Hangout: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-KklSGlCiJDwOPdR2EUcg/ Astronomy Cast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUHI67dh9jEO2rvK--MdCSg Support us at https://www.patreon.com/universetoday More stories at https://www.universetoday.com/ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/fcain Twitter: @universetoday Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday Instagram - https://instagram.com/universetoday Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / frasercain@gmail.com Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw Chad Weber - weber.chad@gmail.com References: https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-is-interferometer https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/mediafiles/binaries/313/original/LIGOHistory.pdf https://gwcenter.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/plan http://www.gw-indigo.org/tiki-index.php https://www.osa-opn.org/home/articles/volume29/may2018/features/gravitationalwavestheroadahead/ http://www.et-gw.eu/ https://tds.virgo-gw.eu/?callfile=ET-0106C-10.pdf https://cosmicexplorer.org/ https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1907/1907.04833.pdf https://sci.esa.int/web/lisa/-/61367-mission-summary https://sci.esa.int/web/lisa-pathfinder/-/59238-lisa-pathfinder-to-conclude-trailblazing-mission https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.11305.pdf