The Latest News from Space

The Revolution of Gravitational Waves

In September 2015, the American Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) observed the first gravitational wave to cross the Earth, a microscopic vibration of space-time of around a billionth of a billionth of a metre. In August 2017, a new gravitational wave was detected by LIGO and the European Virgo detector, allowing scientists to observe the merger of two neutron stars and to see the light emitted by this event through 70 telescopes on Earth and in orbit. Mysteries about the origin of heavy chemical elements such as gold and the powerful gamma-ray bursts were unveiled that day.

Since then, gravitational waves have led to the opening of a new window on the Universe, allowing scientists to test the theory of General Relativity, Einstein’s theory of gravitation, and to discover new dark objects in the sky.

Written by a leading researcher in the field, the book explains the adventure of the gravitational-wave detection, since Einstein’s first prediction in 1916 to the first detections. The text summarizes the main scientific results of this revolution, mixing science with the description of the enthusiasm and sometimes frustrations of the scientific community that performed this revolution in science. This book is an epic of modern times that allows us to observe events at the edge of the Universe and to perhaps unravel the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.