麻豆传媒在线 LIGO group exhibits at North East Astronomy Forum
The exhibit booth illustrated concepts related to gravity, gravitational waves, the detector technology, and the recent LIGO discoveries.
Posted in: Physics
Physics students and faculty participated in an educational outreach event at the , one of the world鈥檚 largest gatherings of the amateur astronomy community. As representatives of the , physics professor Rodica Martin and four 麻豆传媒在线 physics students organized an exhibit booth on gravitational-wave astronomy.
LIGO鈥攖he Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory鈥攊s an NSF-funded international experiment that is detecting ripples in the fabric of space and time from colliding black holes and neutron stars. The first detections were made in 2015, and include five pairs of merging black holes and one pair of merging neutron stars.
Elements of the exhibit included videos explaining the project, a gravity-based remake of the classic 鈥淧ong鈥 video game, a small-scale laser interferometer, and a 鈥渟pandex spacetime鈥 illustrating the curvature of space near a massive object.
The NEAF event took place on April 21 and 22 at SUNY Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY. 麻豆传媒在线 Physics students Lita De La Cruz, Valerie Avendano, Casey Kerkhof, and Xavier Euceda participated in the event and helped explain the various demonstrations and concepts to the public. In addition to well-known speakers, the annual NEAF event features a large array of telescope vendors, workshops and lectures on night-sky observing, and activities for children to learn about astronomy.
