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Research Spotlight

Department of Physics Reseachers Celebrate 10th Anniversary of Direct Detection of Gravitational Waves

Portrait of a smiling person wearing glasses and a dark blazer over a blue shirt, standing outdoors with trees in the background.

Will Farr, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Physics and Astronomy, and graduate student Nicole Khusid have been part of a worldwide team of researchers who have used the loudest black hole merger detected to date to help identify how black holes work, confirming theoretical predictions about black hole spacetimes.

This revelation comes 10 years after scientists first detected ripples in the fabric of spacetime, called gravitational waves, from the collision of two black holes. This latest discovery was the result of improved technology, instruments and techniques over the past decade and confirms theories predicted by Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Roy Kerr.

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