Secret Science Club Presents Astrophysicist Chiara Mingarelli

Gravitational waves in space-time are like ripples in a pond cause by a pebble thrown in the water—that is, if the pebble’s impact had the energy of, say, our own Sun exploding. Predicted by Einstein in 1916, gravitational waves proved devilishly difficult to detect. It was only in 2015 that scientists were first able to pinpoint the existence of a real-life gravitational wave, echoing across space-time as the result of a collision of two black holes more than a billion miles away.

That discovery ushered in a new “wave” in astronomy: Gravitational waves aren’t just fascinating phenomena—they are a whole new way to study the cosmos. Astrophysicist Chiara Mingarelli is part of a consortium of international scientists, working on new methods to predict and detect gravitational waves in an effort to understand the large portion of the Universe that remains invisible to us.

At the next Secret Science Club, Dr. Mingarelli asks:

–Are there different kinds gravitational waves? Why are some harder to detect than others?

–What might gravitational waves teach us about dark matter, dark energy, black holes, and the Big Bang?

–What role do pulsars (those super-freaky but super-reliable, rotating, radio-wave emitting neutron stars) play in gravitational wave research?