Gabriela González: How LIGO discovered gravitational waves -- and what might be next
Gabriela González: Como o LIGO descobriu as ondas gravitacionais, e o que pode vir a seguir
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,
da relatividade geral,
the planets -- attracts mass,
os planetas - atrai massa,
as Newton claimed,
como afirmava Newton,
all of us, all the planets --
todos nós, todos os planetas,
of space-time.
and that connects us all.
em que vivemos e conecta todos nós.
and distort its contour.
e ele afunda com nosso peso.
not according to Newton's laws,
não segundo as leis de Newton,
do espaço-tempo
this space-time curvature
nestles up to us
se aconchegam perto de nós na cama
when masses move,
quando as massas se moviam,
revolve around one another
orbitam uma ao redor da outra
which carry energy from the system,
que sugam energia do sistema,
se aproximem uns dos outros.
to measure them.
de centenas de cientistas,
working in many countries
ao longo de várias décadas,
waves for the first time.
ondas gravitacionais pela primeira vez.
around one another --
orbitavam um ao outro...
ondas gravitacionais,
girando cada vez mais rápido,
accelerating in speed,
at almost the speed of light,
a quase a velocidade da luz,
into the space of 360 kilometers.
de 360 quilômetros.
produced gravitational waves
ondas gravitacionais
to the rest of the universe.
cósmico ao restante do universo.
the effects of these gravitational waves,
os efeitos dessas ondas gravitacionais,
is by looking for effects in distances.
é buscando efeitos em distâncias.
passed by Earth,
passaram pela Terra,
em todas as distâncias...
as distâncias entre vocês e eu,
the distances between you and me,
stretched and shrank a tiny bit.
e encolhemos um pouquinho.
is proportional to the distance.
seja proporcional à distância.
than my slight height,
que minha baixa estatura,
between the Earth and the Sun
entre a Terra e o Sol
at Caltech and MIT --
da Caltech e do MIT -
measure distances
com precisão as distâncias
distances between mirrors
distâncias entre espelhos,
and many scientists
e muito trabalho de vários cientistas
and develop the ideas.
e desenvolver as ideias.
wave detectors, two interferometers,
dois detectores de ondas gravitacionais,
through four kilometers in-vacuum,
and then they return.
e depois retornam.
entre esse braço e esse braço.
very, very sensitive;
muito, muito, muito sensíveis.
mais precisos do mundo.
instruments in the world.
that we want to measure come from space,
medir vêm do espaço,
em constante movimento.
the gravitational wave effects --
das ondas gravitacionais,
and should show up on the two detectors --
que apareçam nos dois detectores,
from the local effects,
ou em um ou no outro.
either on one or the other.
the second-generation technology
geração de tecnologia nos detectores,
sensitivity that we wanted --
ótima que queríamos -
two years later --
collecting a few months' worth of data.
a coletar dados durante alguns meses.
in amplitude and frequency
em amplitude e frequência
in decoding this type of wave,
esse tipo de onda,
that they came from black holes
de buracos negros,
this would happen until much later;
aconteceria tão cedo.
ourselves that it was true,
que aquilo era verdade,
any room for error.
qualquer espaço para erros.
e, para eliminar qualquer dúvida
really could measure these things,
podiam medir essas coisas,
produced a difference in the distance
produziu uma diferença de distância
segundo nossos padrões.
by our standards.
waves and not sound waves,
de espaço-tempo e não de som,
and listen to them.
em alto-falantes.
to the first two notes of that music.
as duas primeiras notas dessa música.
was the last fraction of a second
foi a última fração de segundo
emitted vast amounts of energy --
emitiram enorme quantidade de energia,
converting into energy,
três sóis convertidos em energia,
we actually dance to it.
que dançamos ao ouvi-la.
be used for?
gravitacionais podem servir?
what else is there left to do?"
o que mais resta fazer?"
be used for?
gravitacionais serviriam?
"What is the purpose of poetry?"
"Qual o propósito da poesia?",
Qual o propósito das carícias?
of the smell of coffee?"
it's for emotion, it's for living."
ela serve para a emoção, para viver".
how everything works,
de saber como tudo funciona,
all of us, everyone, as kids --
a humanidade, todos nós, como crianças,
for the first time and see the stars,
pela primeira vez e vemos as estrelas,
now have a purpose,
gravitacionais já têm um propósito
a new way to explore the universe.
uma nova forma de explorar o universo.
the light of the stars
a luz das estrelas
to the sound of the universe,
like gravitational waves.
como as ondas gravitacionais.
from gravitational waves?
a partir das ondas gravitacionais?
the technology to detect them,
para detectá-las,
that they are useful.
que elas são úteis para algo assim.
to derive technology from science,
para obtermos tecnologia da ciência,
more and more sensitive --
cada vez mais sensíveis -
more black holes
how many there are, where they are
quantos existem, onde estão
outros objetos também.
and turn into black holes.
e se transformarem em buracos negros.
rotating stars in our galaxy
giratórias em nossa galáxia
explosions of supernovas in our galaxy.
de supernovas em nossa galáxia.
a whole spectrum of new sources.
de novas fontes.
to the human body:
ao corpo humano:
to silent movies.
o som aos filmes mudos.
very fun, but very long --
bem divertido, mas bem longo;
international community of scientists,
internacional de cientistas,
juntos como uma equipe,
together as a team,
sometimes encountering detours --
encontrando desvios ,
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