Gabriela González: How LIGO discovered gravitational waves -- and what might be next
Gabriela González: Cómo LIGO descubrió las ondas gravitacionales
Gabriela González is part of the collaboration of more than 1,000 scientists who measured for the first time the gravitational waves that Einstein predicted over 100 years ago. Full bio
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his theory of general relativity,
de la relatividad general,
que explica la gravedad.
the planets -- attracts mass,
materia, los planetas -- se atraen
as Newton claimed,
instantánea, como decía Newton,
all of us, all the planets --
todos nosotros, todos los planetas --
of space-time.
del espacio-tiempo.
and that connects us all.
en lo que vivimos
and distort its contour.
nos acostamos en un colchón
not according to Newton's laws,
no por las leyes de Newton,
this space-time curvature
del espacio-tiempo
nestles up to us
a la curvatura del colchón.
when masses move,
cuando las masas se mueven
revolve around one another
cuando dos estrellas están girando
which carry energy from the system,
y se van acercando las estrellas.
eran tan tan tan pequeños
to measure them.
con el trabajo de cientos de científicos
working in many countries
por muchas décadas,
waves for the first time.
around one another --
uno alrededor del otro,
ondas gravitacionales,
accelerating in speed,
at almost the speed of light,
casi a la velocidad de la luz,
into the space of 360 kilometers.
produced gravitational waves
ondas gravitacionales
to the rest of the universe.
de este abrazo cósmico
the effects of these gravitational waves,
de estas ondas gravitacionales,
is by looking for effects in distances.
la manera en que las medimos,
longitudes, distancias.
passed by Earth,
pasaron por la Tierra,
the distances between you and me,
las distancias entre ustedes y yo,
stretched and shrank a tiny bit.
y nos achicamos un poquitito.
is proportional to the distance.
el efecto es proporcional a la distancia.
than my slight height,
que mi poca altura,
between the Earth and the Sun
entre la Tierra y el Sol
en Caltech y MIT,
at Caltech and MIT --
measure distances
precisamente distancias
distances between mirrors
distancias entre espejos
and many scientists
y muchos científicos
and develop the ideas.
desarrollar las ideas,
wave detectors, two interferometers,
de ondas gravitacionales,
en medio de un bosque precioso;
en medio del desierto.
que viajan desde el centro,
through four kilometers in-vacuum,
and then they return.
la diferencia de distancia
very, very sensitive;
son muy muy muy sensibles,
instruments in the world.
más precisos del mundo.
that we want to measure come from space,
vienen del espacio
se están moviendo todo el tiempo,
the gravitational wave effects --
efectos ondas gravitacionales,
and should show up on the two detectors --
y deben aparecer en los dos detectores,
from the local effects,
de los efectos locales,
either on one or the other.
en uno o en el otro.
the second-generation technology
la segunda generación de tecnología
sensitivity that we wanted --
a la sensibilidad óptima que queremos --
two years later --
a tomar datos por unos meses.
collecting a few months' worth of data.
in amplitude and frequency
en amplitud de frecuencia
in decoding this type of wave,
descodificando esta forma de onda,
that they came from black holes
que venían de agujeros negros
this would happen until much later;
ourselves that it was true,
de que esto era cierto,
any room for error.
dar lugar a ningún error.
really could measure these things,
podían medir estas cosas,
medimos otra onda gravitacional
produced a difference in the distance
produjo una diferencia de distancia
by our standards.
para nuestros estándares
waves and not sound waves,
de espacio-tiempo,
and listen to them.
ponerlas en parlantes y escucharlas.
"la música del universo".
to the first two notes of that music.
las primeras dos notas
was the last fraction of a second
fue la última fracción de segundo
emitted vast amounts of energy --
emitieron un montón de energía --
converting into energy,
soles convirtiéndose en energía
we actually dance to it.
a nosotros nos encanta tanto,
be used for?
las ondas gravitacionales?
what else is there left to do?"
be used for?
las ondas gravitacionales?
"What is the purpose of poetry?"
of the smell of coffee?"
it's for emotion, it's for living."
para la emoción, para vivir".
por saber cómo funciona todo
how everything works,
all of us, everyone, as kids --
for the first time and see the stars,
now have a purpose,
ya están sirviendo,
a new way to explore the universe.
una nueva manera de explorar el universo.
the light of the stars
la luz de las estrellas
to the sound of the universe,
el sonido del universo
like gravitational waves.
como ondas gravitacionales.
from gravitational waves?
de ondas gravitacionales?
a tomar mucho tiempo.
the technology to detect them,
para detectarlas,
a lo mejor se descubra de acá a cien años
that they are useful.
to derive technology from science,
derivar tecnología de la ciencia
more and more sensitive --
los detectores más sensibles --
more black holes
how many there are, where they are
para saber cuántos hay, dónde están
vamos a ver otros objetos.
and turn into black holes.
de estrellas de neutrones,
rotating stars in our galaxy
en nuestra galaxia
explosions of supernovas in our galaxy.
de supernovas en nuestra galaxia.
a whole spectrum of new sources.
que vamos a estar viendo.
to the human body:
al cuerpo humano:
inventó el telescopio,
se le agregó el sonido.
to silent movies.
very fun, but very long --
es muy largo --
international community of scientists,
de científicos trabajando en equipo
together as a team,
sometimes encountering detours --
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Gabriela González - AstrophysicistGabriela González is part of the collaboration of more than 1,000 scientists who measured for the first time the gravitational waves that Einstein predicted over 100 years ago.
Why you should listen
Gabriela González is a physicist working on the discovery of gravitational waves with the LIGO team. She was born in Córdoba, Argentina, studied physics at the University of Córdoba, and pursued her PhD at Syracuse University, which obtained in 1995. She worked as a staff scientist in the LIGO group at MIT until 1997, when she joined the faculty at Penn State. In 2001 she joined the faculty at LSU, where she is a professor of physics and astronomy. She has received awards from the American Physical Society, the American Astronomical Society and the National Academy of Sciences, and she is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
González has been a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration since it was funded in 1997, served as the elected LSC spokesperson in 2011-2017, and is known for participating in the announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves in 2016. Her work has focused on LIGO instrument development (especially reducing noise sources and tuning alignment systems) and LIGO data calibration and diagnostics, critical to increasing the astrophysical reach of data analysis methods.
Gabriela González | Speaker | TED.com