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The Conversation
The Conversation
Chad Hanna, Professor of Physics, Penn State

Gravitational wave detector LIGO is back online after 3 years of upgrades – how the world's most sensitive yardstick reveals secrets of the universe

When two massive objects – like black holes or neutron stars – merge, they warp space and time. Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

After a three-year hiatus, scientists in the U.S. have just turned on detectors capable of measuring gravitational waves - tiny ripples in space itself that travel through the universe.

Unlike light waves, gravitational waves are nearly unimpeded by the galaxies, stars, gas and dust that fill the universe. This means that by measuring gravitational waves, astrophysicists like me can peek directly into the heart of some of these most spectacular phenomena in the universe.

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