Gabriela González: How LIGO discovered gravitational waves -- and what might be next
Gabriela González: Come LIGO ha scoperto le onde gravitazionali
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,
della relatività generale,
che spiega la gravità.
the planets -- attracts mass,
i pianeti -- si attraggono
as Newton claimed,
istantanea, come diceva Newton,
all of us, all the planets --
tutti noi, tutti i pianeti --
of space-time.
dello spazio-tempo.
and that connects us all.
and distort its contour.
su un materasso
not according to Newton's laws,
non secondo le leggi di Newton,
this space-time curvature
dello spazio-tempo
nestles up to us
a causa delle curve del materasso.
when masses move,
dei movimenti delle masse
revolve around one another
quando due stelle girano
which carry energy from the system,
e le stelle si avvicinano.
erano tanto tanto tanto piccoli
to measure them.
con il lavoro di centinaia di scienziati
working in many countries
per molti decenni,
waves for the first time.
quelle onde gravitazionali
around one another --
onde gravitazionali,
accelerating in speed,
at almost the speed of light,
quasi alla velocità della luce,
into the space of 360 kilometers.
produced gravitational waves
delle onde gravitazionali
to the rest of the universe.
di questo abbraccio cosmico
the effects of these gravitational waves,
l'effetto di queste onde gravitazionali,
is by looking for effects in distances.
il modo in cui le misuriamo,
longitudini, distanze.
passed by Earth,
sono passate per la Terra,
the distances between you and me,
le distanze tra voi e me,
stretched and shrank a tiny bit.
e ci rimpiccioliamo un po'.
is proportional to the distance.
sia proporzionale alla distanza.
than my slight height,
rispetto alla mia poca altezza,
between the Earth and the Sun
tra la Terra e il Sole
al Caltech e al MIT,
at Caltech and MIT --
measure distances
le distanze in modo preciso
distances between mirrors
le distanze tra specchi
and many scientists
e molti scienziati
and develop the ideas.
per elaborare le idee,
wave detectors, two interferometers,
di onde gravitazionali,
di un bellissimo bosco;
in mezzo al deserto.
che viaggiano dal centro,
through four kilometers in-vacuum,
and then they return.
e ritornano,
la differenza di distanza
very, very sensitive;
molto molto molto sensibili,
instruments in the world.
più precisi del mondo.
that we want to measure come from space,
vengono dallo spazio,
in continuazione,
the gravitational wave effects --
le onde gravitazionali,
and should show up on the two detectors --
e deve apparire nei due rivelatori,
from the local effects,
dagli effetti locali,
either on one or the other.
nell'uno e nell'altro.
the second-generation technology
la seconda generazione tecnologica
sensitivity that we wanted --
precisa che desideriamo --
two years later --
a raccogliere dei dati per alcuni mesi.
collecting a few months' worth of data.
abbiamo visto un segnale
in amplitude and frequency
in ampiezza e frequenza
in decoding this type of wave,
questa forma d'onda,
that they came from black holes
che provenivano da buchi neri
this would happen until much later;
ourselves that it was true,
che era sicuro,
any room for error.
alcun errore.
really could measure these things,
davvero misurare queste cose,
abbiamo misurato un'altra onda
produced a difference in the distance
ha prodotto una differenza di distanza
by our standards.
per i nostri standard.
waves and not sound waves,
onde di spazio-tempo,
and listen to them.
e ascoltarle.
to the first two notes of that music.
was the last fraction of a second
è stata l'ultima frazione di secondo
emitted vast amounts of energy --
hanno emesso tantissima energia --
converting into energy,
che si convertono in energia
we actually dance to it.
ci piace moltissimo,
be used for?
what else is there left to do?"
be used for?
"What is the purpose of poetry?"
of the smell of coffee?"
it's for emotion, it's for living."
per l'emozione, per vivere."
di sapere come funziona tutto
how everything works,
all of us, everyone, as kids --
for the first time and see the stars,
per la prima volta
che ci rende umani.
con la scienza.
now have a purpose,
a new way to explore the universe.
di esplorare l'universo.
the light of the stars
la luce delle stelle
to the sound of the universe,
il suono dell'universo
like gravitational waves.
come le onde gravitazionali.
from gravitational waves?
da queste onde gravitazionali?
the technology to detect them,
per rilevarle,
tra cent'anni
that they are useful.
to derive technology from science,
per ricavare una tecnologia dalla scienza
more and more sensitive --
dei rivelatori più sensibili --
more black holes
how many there are, where they are
quanti sono, dove sono,
and turn into black holes.
rotating stars in our galaxy
nella nostra galassia
explosions of supernovas in our galaxy.
nella nostra galassia.
a whole spectrum of new sources.
che potremo vedere.
to the human body:
al corpo umano:
al cinema muto si aggiunse il sonoro.
to silent movies.
very fun, but very long --
è molto lungo --
international community of scientists,
di scienziati che lavorano in squadra
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