Astronomy Colloquium (2018 Fall Semester)

* Date.        Sep 20

* Speaker.   Marc Favata (Montclair State University)

* Title.         Highlights from the first few gravitational-wave detections by LIGO

* Abstract 

Starting in 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has detected gravitational waves from several binary black hole mergers and one binary neutron star merger. I will give a brief history of the LIGO project and an overview of the binary systems detected so far, with an emphasis on how the results can be understood using basic physics principles. I will also discuss plans for future gravitational-wave observatories.