Humanity's quest to put eyes and ears on gravitational waves

Outreach talk, 50 min. Oct. 2017: Staunton River Star Party, Scottsburg, VA, USA.

Transcript

1. Humanity's Quest To
   Put Eyes And Ears On
   Gravitational Waves
   Dr. JJ Hermes
   Hubble Fellow
   University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
   www.jjherm.es
   

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2. V = 13.3 mag
   Electromagnetic Radiation
   a.k.a. Visible Light
   

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3. V = 13.3 mag
   Wiggling a
   Charge
   Gives Off
   Radiation!
   

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4. V = 13.3 mag
   Hotter Things Give Off Bluer Light!
   

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5. V = 13.3 mag
   Einstein: Mass Bends Space
   (General Relativity)
   

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6. V = 13.3 mag
   Close Pairs of
   Stars Bob in the
   Wake of Each
   Others’ Masses
   Producing
   Gravitational
   Waves!
   

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7. V = 13.3 mag
   H -> He
   fusion in core
   He -> C/O -> …
   fusion in core
   0.08-8 M¤
   8-15 M¤
   >15 M¤
   Stars Evolve; Some Blow Up!
   

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8. V = 13.3 mag
   Binary Neutron Stars
   

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9. V = 13.3 mag
   Hulse-Taylor Binary Pulsar
   – 14 –
   Porb
   = 7.75 hr
   Shrinking by
   0.076 ms/yr
   Nobel prize
   in 1993
   

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10. V = 13.3 mag
    

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11. phase = 0
    J0651+2844: A 12.75-min WD+WD Binary
    1 million times fainter than
    an unaided eye can see
    

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13. Mid-Eclipse Times are Changing Rapidly!
    

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15. Now:
    Porbit
    = 12.75 min
    500,000 yr from now:
    Porbit
    = 10 min
    750,000 yr from now:
    Porbit
    = 8.5 min
    1,000,000 yr from now:
    Porbit
    = 7 min
    Mass Transfer Begins
    

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16. INDIRECT
    

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17. V = 13.3 mag
    Gravitational Waves Stretch
    Space, But Very Subtly
    ΔL
    L
    ~ 10-21
    Proton:
    10-15 m
    

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18. V = 13.3 mag
    

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19. V = 13.3 mag
    

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20. V = 13.3 mag
    

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21. V = 13.3 mag
    LIGO
    

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22. V = 13.3 mag
    

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23. V = 13.3 mag
    

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24. V = 13.3 mag
    

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25. V = 13.3 mag
    2017 Nobel Prize in Physics
    

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27. 2017-08-17
    at 12:41 UTC
    

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30. ~30 deg2 = 120 x full moon
    

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34. V = 13.3 mag
    NGC 4993
    13:09:47.2 −23:23:04
    40 Mpc (130 Mly)
    V=12.4 E/S0 galaxy
    

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37. 4.1-m SOAR telescope,
    Chile
    2017-08-23, t=+5.5 d
    

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38. 2017-08-23T23:29:21.26
    I > 20.1 mag
    

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40. V = 13.3 mag
    Jennifer Johnson
    

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41. V = 13.3 mag
    Kyle Slinker, UNC Chapel Hill
    Gravitational Waves: Listening to
    Black Holes Collide
    Dr. Bart Dunlap, UNC Chapel Hill
    The Bangs and Whimpers of
    Stellar Collisions
    Tue
    Nov.
    7
    Free, All Ages Welcome
    Fullsteam Brewery, Durham, NC
    7-9 pm; Talks start at 7:30 pm
    Come Hear About
    Gravitational Waves
    Over Some
    High-Gravity Beers!
    @AoTTriangle
    facebook.com/aottriangle
    Nobel
    Approved!
    

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42. V = 13.3 mag
    

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