UT Austin Alumnus Leads LIGO Team That Detects Gravitational Waves, Confirming Einstein’s Theory

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Around 4 a.m. on a September night last year, a high-tech system recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light years away — and one Longhorn hurried to catch a flight to Louisiana.

David Reitze rushed to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, to see for himself if the complex detector had recorded the first direct observations of gravity waves. Sure enough, Einstein’s ripples in spacetime had been spotted for the first time.

“We did it,” says Reitze, who graduated from UT Austin in 1990 with a PhD in physics and is now executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, the team behind the incredible discovery.

“I think this will be one of the major breakthroughs in physics for a long time.” —LIGO Scientist Szabolcs Marka

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Pictured above, students, professors, astronomers and physicists on the Forty Acres react to the announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves. 

Black holes and the origin of the universe have long mystified physicists and astronomers, and the findings are being described as a chance to see almost into the heart of black holes and take us back in time.

The New York Times reports:

That faint rising tone, physicists say, is the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago. And it is a ringing (pun intended) confirmation of the nature of black holes, the bottomless gravitational pits from which not even light can escape, which were the most foreboding (and unwelcome) part of his theory.

More generally, it means that scientists have finally tapped into the deepest register of physical reality, where the weirdest and wildest implications of Einstein’s universe become manifest.

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Did you know Einstein’s 1953 gravitational waves manuscript is at UT Austin? Nearly 30 pages of his final studies are accessible at the Harry Ransom Center.

Spotting gravitational waves isn’t the only time Longhorns have helped uncover world-changing discoveries related to Einstein’s work.

In 1962, UT Austin mathematician Roy Kerr provided an exact solution to Einstein’s equations of general relativity, a breakthrough that described the physics of rotating black holes.

“LIGO’s detection is one of the coolest discoveries in decades and … offers a revolutionary new window into the Universe. LIGO will show us wonders that promise to change our understanding of space and time itself.” —Dr. Dan Arvizu, chair, National Science Board

Professor Don Winget’s team discovered indirect evidence for gravity waves emanating from two white dwarf stars slowly spiraling toward each other 3,000 light-years away.

And physicist Richard Matzner predicted the kinds of gravity waves that might be unleashed when two black holes merge, and his predictions might have helped the LIGO team understand more about gravitational waves that occur when black holes collide.

Stop by the Harry Ransom Center’s viewing room to see and study Einstein’s 1953 gravitation waves manuscript or learn more about the collection online

Illustration of black hole at top of post by Jenna Luecke.