Extra: Gravitational Waves Update

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The Interview: On the discovery of only humanity’s third black hole merger by the incredible Laser Interferometry Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO), Jeni’s speaks with Professor Patrick Sutton, Head of Cardiff University’s Gravitational Physics Group and member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration who develops new strategies to detect gravitational wave bursts and creates techniques for locating these sources on the sky for modelling and simulations.

In this interview Jeni asks Patrick about:

• The latest gravitational wave detection
• What we can know about these events and the objects that created them
• The strength and weakness of these signals

The Announcement: For a physics deep dive into the analysis, the data and the modelling of the new black hole merger detected by LIGO this month, LIGO Governing Council member Professor Sathyaprakash (Sathya to his friends) delivers the first lecture on this discovery.

Return to the Interview: In this segment we return to Professor Patrick Sutton who tells Jen about:

• The possibilities for future gravitational wave detections
• The most expensive thing he’s ever broken
• And… personal grooming tips??