IEEE Milestones | Dedication of Gravitational-Wave Antenna
This is an international event recognising how massive antennas in the US and Italy confirmed Einstein’s 1916 prediction about the nature of gravity.
This is a 90-minute livestream event running from 1630-1800 UTC (some local times are included here) which honours the uniquely sophisticated devices that confirmed Einstein’s prediction of 104 years ago.
This informational and entertaining program is intended for a wide audience.
It will include the dedication of an IEEE Milestone in 3 locations: Hanford, Washington USA, Livingston, Louisiana USA, and Cascina (Pisa), Tuscany ITALY. These are the sites of the two LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatories) antennas in the US, and the Virgo antenna at EGO (European Gravitational Observatory) in Italy.
You will learn about what led to construction of these antennas, whose kilometer-scale arms can detect the tremendous gravity resultant from the merger of black holes and binary neutron stars that are up to 3 billion light-years away.
Caltech’s Rich Abbott will lead a discussion with Drs. Rainer Weiss, Kip S. Thorne and Barry C. Barish, who jointly were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.”
The parallel development of the European Virgo antenna will be addressed by key Virgo antenna contributors Kathy Nary Man and Jean-Yves Vinet. Current Asian developments will be described by Takaaki Kajita, principal investigator of Japan’s KAGRA antenna, who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass.”
Other contributors from the US, Italy and France, along with government and agency dignitaries, round out the program, which will conclude with the unveiling of bronze IEEE Milestone plaques at each of the 3 sites.
A wealth of information is at www.GWAMilestone.com.
Note: the registration page will include the YouTube Live and Facebook Live streaming links for this event no later than Friday, Jan. 29. You will be emailed these links at least twice, including shortly before the event starts.
Please register for this event even if the time is inconvenient for you so that we can email you when a video of the event has been posted to www.GWAMilestone.com.
