Measuring ripples in the curvature of space-time
- ️Dance, Amber
- ️Mon Jul 27 2020
- WHERE I WORK
- 27 July 2020
Experimental physicist Sheila Rowan works with laser beams and suspended mirrors to sharpen detection of collapsing stars and other celestial events.
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Amber Dance
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Amber Dance is a freelance writer in Los Angeles, California.
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Sheila Rowan is director of the Institute for Gravitational Research at the University of Glasgow, UK, and chief scientific adviser to the Scottish government. Credit: Kieran Dodds for Nature
As an experimental physicist, I like doing things at tabletop scale that contribute to bigger goals. One such goal is measuring gravitational waves — little ripples in the curvature of space-time. These ripples result from astrophysical events such as star collisions, which cause tiny changes in the direction of the force of gravity and stretch and squash distances here on Earth.
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Nature 583, 872 (2020)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02212-9
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