On Friday, 18 October 2025 we hosted approximately 500 high school students at
Physics Breakthrough - Gravitational Waves
Wed, 02/24/2016 - 3:46am
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Fall 2025 Student Research Presentation and Reception
On the evening of Thursday, 16 October 2025, we celebrated the research activities of our undergraduate and graduate
For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves, arriving at Earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window to the cosmos. The gravitational waves were detected on Sept. 14, 2015 at 5:51 a.m. EDT (09:51 UTC) by both of the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington.
Professor James Dent of our department of physics was featured in a recent KATC-TV video report concerning this breakthrough.
Learn more via this National Science Foundation link.