[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
all right so here’s the surprise and
late edition Gregg Hallinan is the
assistant professor of astronomy at the
California Institute Institute of
Technology and his research group
specializes in the construction of novel
instruments and telescopes to tackle
some of the big questions at the
forefront of astrophysics and I’m not
going to talk too much about it so I
really want to get as much time as we
can with him but let’s tell you this
this August Greg and his team heard
something they’d like to say go bump in
the night and we’re really honored and
thrilled to have Greg show up to tell
you about this extraordinary discovery
he is one of the most currently in
demand scientists given given this new
event and because it’s such a late
addition we didn’t ask Greg to craft a
talk he’s flying all over and talking
everywhere he was at MIT yesterday but
we wanted to get him out here and we’re
just gonna have a bit of a conversation
so please welcome Greg Holloman my mic
on fantastic so big question what
happened on August 17 2017 okay
on that date gravitational wave detector
has detected a new signal for the first
time the image shows three gravitational
wave detectors the LIGO detectors in
Hanford Washington the lack of detector
in Livingston Louisiana and then the
Verger detector initially these are
three of the most sensitive instruments
ever built the cost hundreds millions of
dollars and they detect gravitational
waves the very ripple in the fabric of
space-time they’re so sensitive they can
detect the contraction and expansion of
the Earth’s by the width of a single
atom due to these ripples in space-time
and on August 17th they detected for the
first time the cosmic collision of two
neutron stars these are the two
ultra-dense remnants of two giant stars
that exploded billions of years ago
since that time they have aspired each
other
getting ever closer and on August 17th
we detected their collision what was
very important about this was that
collision produced an explosion a
fireball which was the first time
astronomers could actually detect
signals with conventional normal
telescopes I have a quick video that
shows the final death spiral of this
event and the explosion so this video
made by NASA shows the final death
spiral and as it gets close you get
closer and closer the gravitational
waves get stronger and stronger before
they collide in a massive explosion you
have this fireball that we see in
optical and infrared and you have an
ultra relativistic jet that we can see
with gamma-ray telescopes and x-ray
telescopes and radio telescopes so when
astronomers got the email saying there’s
been an event we all knew was go time
because it was gonna be like that’s
incredible
alright so when the when the waves were
first detected what happened next well
for me personally what normally happens
you get an email from LIGO saying
there’s been an event okay and that goes
out to all the astronomers were a wider
involved so the other telescopes trained
as fast as they can for me personally I
made a fatal miscalculation on August 17
there was one week left before LIGO
shuts down for a year for upgrades it
had been operating for nine months with
no detection so the one weeks ago I
thought what are the odds would be a
detection of the last week so my wife
and I took our baby daughter to Ireland
where I’m from to meet her extended
family for the first time so when I got
the email saying it’s go time
I was standing in a grocery store in the
North West of Ireland
holding a very jet like baby and I got
this email I’m like oh wow and then I’m
like oh no I’m four miles from where I
need to be and then my phone starts
ringing and my colleagues man see cars
knew all the Caltech and kunal newly
recalling me to say what do we do what
do we do let’s get going so like
everybody like every other astronomer
worldwide
we began planning and that was the end
of the vacation obviously so how did you
and other scientists know where to look
it’s good question
so LIGO and Virgo told us the event
happened in an area of the sky about 30
square degrees that’s still a pretty big
area about a hundred times the largeness
than the earth the full moon so what
astronomers did was look in that area of
the sky and it turns out in that area
were about 49 galaxies that could have
or could be the other side of the merger
so we began pointing our telescopes one
by one to every galaxy which and finally
we zoomed it in the right one NGC for
993 at a distance of 130 million
light-years away and here is an image on
the left you see a Hubble Space
Telescope image from April 2017 before
the detection on the rice highlighted by
the arrow is the first detection of the
explosion from astronomers using a swab
telescope of Carnegie observatories when
first detected it had the light of a
billion suns and afterwards there was
there was a UV radiation there was
infrared x-rays and then from it– from
my group there was radio waves fantastic
so all right so tell us why is this such
an important event what does it mean for
us good question
so the first thing and this is the first
time we can actually detect
gravitational waves and lie
simultaneously from an event it’s kind
of like we’re seeing and hearing the
violet universe for the first time
gravitational waves tell you about the
dense environment where the merger
happens where you can’t see with
telescopes and then with our telescopes
we can see the explosion learn what
happened in the explosion how much
energy was there and what elements were
created there the second I think almost
more exciting thing is that it turns out
in this explosion there were 10,000
earth masses of heavy elements created
that included two hundred masses worth
of gold and for those you’re interested
I checked the price of gold this morning
that is fifteen non-alien dollars that’s
50 with 30 zeros afterwards there were
five hundred earth masses of platinum
created so to bring it all home if
you’re wearing a ring in your finger
that is gold or
or silver it turns out that method was
created in the exact kind of same
explosion as this billions of years ago
before the earth was formed so you’re
wearing a bit of you just are marriage
on your hand that’s incredible
alright so what do we learn from your
team’s discovery so my team we
discovered the radio waves so when we
have the email saying it’s go time
we began training all the radio
telescopes we could worldwide towards
the location of the of the signal and it
turns out we finally made the discovery
with the Very Large Array which is the
biggest most sensitive radio telescope
on the planet it’s in New Mexico but
it’s actually managed by the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory with
headquarters right here in
Charlottesville what you think is kind
of cool
so on the left is an optical image of
this galaxy where you can see with the
arrow again you can see the location of
the explosion on the right we have if
you had radio eyes we have the radio
discovery of this afterglow and over the
following weeks we see we saw getting
brighter and brighter and that’s very
important while everything else is
fading away the fireball is getting
bigger and the radio is getting brighter
and we’re gonna learn so much we’re
gonna learn about the energy of the
explosion we’re gonna learn was there a
jet formed we’re gonna learn what kind
of environments do the explosion happen
will they be stars form there in the
future and planets formed and will the
metals form of this merger be part of
the the formation of those planets so
we’re gonna learn an awful lot in the
next year or so I hope that’s
fascinating
alright so you told me something when we
first talked two days ago about how we
you actually combined all of the power
of these radio telescopes into something
that assimilates an earth-sized
telescope can you explain that a little
bit sure so we use a very cool technique
called very long baseline interferometry
and that involves combining multiple
telescopes across the globe to create a
mega telescope an earth-sized telescope
so here actually is a picture of some of
the telescopes we’re using 38 telescopes
across the continental US and Beyond
including the largest single steerable
dish in the world in Green Bank West
Virginia and we combined into this mega
telescope and why do we do that because
it’s more sensitive but also because
it’s so large that
it has incredible spatial resolution
this telescope has resolution much
better than Hubble Space Telescope and
it can actually resolve this fireball
this explosion so we’re hoping it either
this month or in the coming months we’d
be able to provide the very first
snapshot image of a new two star merger
that’s incredible
all right so let’s go back to this thing
about August 17th from what I understand
these events they could take a long time
to get to us right so when you say it
happened on August 17th the question in
my mind is is that actually the day it
happened or when did these stars collide
right so that’s actually when the
gravitational waves and lice got here
okay they’ve been traveling at the speed
of light since the merger the speed of
light is about 300,000 kilometers per
second it took 130 million years to get
here and that’s actually still a
relatively nearby galaxy space is big
almost harder to understand than
crypto-currency so what is the future
hold like what what’s next so I
mentioned LIGO getting shut down for
upgrades it’s gonna come back online
it’s gonna be bigger and better and much
more sensitive so probably when it comes
back online a year from now we start
seeing these events on a monthly basis
so we learn a lot more we learn you know
is it really where all the heavy metals
come from we find closer events and
eventually when LIGO goes to another set
of upgrades we can see directly what
happens afterwards do those usual stars
form black holes when they collide and
you’re also gonna see a lot of really
tired astronomers because this event I
haven’t slept for two months after
having in a monthly basis I’m done
alright last question because it’s
probably on everybody’s mind if this
happened 130 million years ago and just
got here what are the odds that
something like this actually happened
you know another 50 million years ago
somewhere a little closer and we’re sort
of a day away from being obliterated so
if one happened very nearby it could
pose a threat in fact if it was one
happening nearby or the jet pointed
right at us it could actually take away
the ozone layer and some theories
suggest that maybe
mass extinction in the past might have
been associated with an event like this
but we know the solar neighborhood
pretty well and would have to be very
nearby so you can all relax it’s not
gonna happen I think I don’t think
there’s any chance of us being you know
wiped out anytime soon
fantastic all right well thank you so
much thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
all right so here’s the surprise and
late edition Gregg Hallinan is the
assistant professor of astronomy at the
California Institute Institute of
Technology and his research group
specializes in the construction of novel
instruments and telescopes to tackle
some of the big questions at the
forefront of astrophysics and I’m not
going to talk too much about it so I
really want to get as much time as we
can with him but let’s tell you this
this August Greg and his team heard
something they’d like to say go bump in
the night and we’re really honored and
thrilled to have Greg show up to tell
you about this extraordinary discovery
he is one of the most currently in
demand scientists given given this new
event and because it’s such a late
addition we didn’t ask Greg to craft a
talk he’s flying all over and talking
everywhere he was at MIT yesterday but
we wanted to get him out here and we’re
just gonna have a bit of a conversation
so please welcome Greg Holloman my mic
on fantastic so big question what
happened on August 17 2017 okay
on that date gravitational wave detector
has detected a new signal for the first
time the image shows three gravitational
wave detectors the LIGO detectors in
Hanford Washington the lack of detector
in Livingston Louisiana and then the
Verger detector initially these are
three of the most sensitive instruments
ever built the cost hundreds millions of
dollars and they detect gravitational
waves the very ripple in the fabric of
space-time they’re so sensitive they can
detect the contraction and expansion of
the Earth’s by the width of a single
atom due to these ripples in space-time
and on August 17th they detected for the
first time the cosmic collision of two
neutron stars these are the two
ultra-dense remnants of two giant stars
that exploded billions of years ago
since that time they have aspired each
other
getting ever closer and on August 17th
we detected their collision what was
very important about this was that
collision produced an explosion a
fireball which was the first time
astronomers could actually detect
signals with conventional normal
telescopes I have a quick video that
shows the final death spiral of this
event and the explosion so this video
made by NASA shows the final death
spiral and as it gets close you get
closer and closer the gravitational
waves get stronger and stronger before
they collide in a massive explosion you
have this fireball that we see in
optical and infrared and you have an
ultra relativistic jet that we can see
with gamma-ray telescopes and x-ray
telescopes and radio telescopes so when
astronomers got the email saying there’s
been an event we all knew was go time
because it was gonna be like that’s
incredible
alright so when the when the waves were
first detected what happened next well
for me personally what normally happens
you get an email from LIGO saying
there’s been an event okay and that goes
out to all the astronomers were a wider
involved so the other telescopes trained
as fast as they can for me personally I
made a fatal miscalculation on August 17
there was one week left before LIGO
shuts down for a year for upgrades it
had been operating for nine months with
no detection so the one weeks ago I
thought what are the odds would be a
detection of the last week so my wife
and I took our baby daughter to Ireland
where I’m from to meet her extended
family for the first time so when I got
the email saying it’s go time
I was standing in a grocery store in the
North West of Ireland
holding a very jet like baby and I got
this email I’m like oh wow and then I’m
like oh no I’m four miles from where I
need to be and then my phone starts
ringing and my colleagues man see cars
knew all the Caltech and kunal newly
recalling me to say what do we do what
do we do let’s get going so like
everybody like every other astronomer
worldwide
we began planning and that was the end
of the vacation obviously so how did you
and other scientists know where to look
it’s good question
so LIGO and Virgo told us the event
happened in an area of the sky about 30
square degrees that’s still a pretty big
area about a hundred times the largeness
than the earth the full moon so what
astronomers did was look in that area of
the sky and it turns out in that area
were about 49 galaxies that could have
or could be the other side of the merger
so we began pointing our telescopes one
by one to every galaxy which and finally
we zoomed it in the right one NGC for
993 at a distance of 130 million
light-years away and here is an image on
the left you see a Hubble Space
Telescope image from April 2017 before
the detection on the rice highlighted by
the arrow is the first detection of the
explosion from astronomers using a swab
telescope of Carnegie observatories when
first detected it had the light of a
billion suns and afterwards there was
there was a UV radiation there was
infrared x-rays and then from it– from
my group there was radio waves fantastic
so all right so tell us why is this such
an important event what does it mean for
us good question
so the first thing and this is the first
time we can actually detect
gravitational waves and lie
simultaneously from an event it’s kind
of like we’re seeing and hearing the
violet universe for the first time
gravitational waves tell you about the
dense environment where the merger
happens where you can’t see with
telescopes and then with our telescopes
we can see the explosion learn what
happened in the explosion how much
energy was there and what elements were
created there the second I think almost
more exciting thing is that it turns out
in this explosion there were 10,000
earth masses of heavy elements created
that included two hundred masses worth
of gold and for those you’re interested
I checked the price of gold this morning
that is fifteen non-alien dollars that’s
50 with 30 zeros afterwards there were
five hundred earth masses of platinum
created so to bring it all home if
you’re wearing a ring in your finger
that is gold or
or silver it turns out that method was
created in the exact kind of same
explosion as this billions of years ago
before the earth was formed so you’re
wearing a bit of you just are marriage
on your hand that’s incredible
alright so what do we learn from your
team’s discovery so my team we
discovered the radio waves so when we
have the email saying it’s go time
we began training all the radio
telescopes we could worldwide towards
the location of the of the signal and it
turns out we finally made the discovery
with the Very Large Array which is the
biggest most sensitive radio telescope
on the planet it’s in New Mexico but
it’s actually managed by the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory with
headquarters right here in
Charlottesville what you think is kind
of cool
so on the left is an optical image of
this galaxy where you can see with the
arrow again you can see the location of
the explosion on the right we have if
you had radio eyes we have the radio
discovery of this afterglow and over the
following weeks we see we saw getting
brighter and brighter and that’s very
important while everything else is
fading away the fireball is getting
bigger and the radio is getting brighter
and we’re gonna learn so much we’re
gonna learn about the energy of the
explosion we’re gonna learn was there a
jet formed we’re gonna learn what kind
of environments do the explosion happen
will they be stars form there in the
future and planets formed and will the
metals form of this merger be part of
the the formation of those planets so
we’re gonna learn an awful lot in the
next year or so I hope that’s
fascinating
alright so you told me something when we
first talked two days ago about how we
you actually combined all of the power
of these radio telescopes into something
that assimilates an earth-sized
telescope can you explain that a little
bit sure so we use a very cool technique
called very long baseline interferometry
and that involves combining multiple
telescopes across the globe to create a
mega telescope an earth-sized telescope
so here actually is a picture of some of
the telescopes we’re using 38 telescopes
across the continental US and Beyond
including the largest single steerable
dish in the world in Green Bank West
Virginia and we combined into this mega
telescope and why do we do that because
it’s more sensitive but also because
it’s so large that
it has incredible spatial resolution
this telescope has resolution much
better than Hubble Space Telescope and
it can actually resolve this fireball
this explosion so we’re hoping it either
this month or in the coming months we’d
be able to provide the very first
snapshot image of a new two star merger
that’s incredible
all right so let’s go back to this thing
about August 17th from what I understand
these events they could take a long time
to get to us right so when you say it
happened on August 17th the question in
my mind is is that actually the day it
happened or when did these stars collide
right so that’s actually when the
gravitational waves and lice got here
okay they’ve been traveling at the speed
of light since the merger the speed of
light is about 300,000 kilometers per
second it took 130 million years to get
here and that’s actually still a
relatively nearby galaxy space is big
almost harder to understand than
crypto-currency so what is the future
hold like what what’s next so I
mentioned LIGO getting shut down for
upgrades it’s gonna come back online
it’s gonna be bigger and better and much
more sensitive so probably when it comes
back online a year from now we start
seeing these events on a monthly basis
so we learn a lot more we learn you know
is it really where all the heavy metals
come from we find closer events and
eventually when LIGO goes to another set
of upgrades we can see directly what
happens afterwards do those usual stars
form black holes when they collide and
you’re also gonna see a lot of really
tired astronomers because this event I
haven’t slept for two months after
having in a monthly basis I’m done
alright last question because it’s
probably on everybody’s mind if this
happened 130 million years ago and just
got here what are the odds that
something like this actually happened
you know another 50 million years ago
somewhere a little closer and we’re sort
of a day away from being obliterated so
if one happened very nearby it could
pose a threat in fact if it was one
happening nearby or the jet pointed
right at us it could actually take away
the ozone layer and some theories
suggest that maybe
mass extinction in the past might have
been associated with an event like this
but we know the solar neighborhood
pretty well and would have to be very
nearby so you can all relax it’s not
gonna happen I think I don’t think
there’s any chance of us being you know
wiped out anytime soon
fantastic all right well thank you so
much thank you
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