A new era of astronomy

It is an astronomical revolution in which astrophysicists Mary Ann Besswar and Sarah Antear agree with this openness to astronomy with many of the Messengers. Historically, the first messenger from heaven was Light. Countless photons from the universe reach us, which in the first place directly define the retina and reveal the night sky that is accessible to the naked eye. In 1610, its size changed when Galileo first used an astronomical telescope that revealed details not directly accessible, such as the rings of Saturn or the moons of Jupiter.

Over the course of four centuries, telescopes have grown and gathered more and more light. But it was still light, that is, electromagnetic waves. During the twentieth century, observers began to discover particles, such as neutrinos, that are produced by nuclear phenomena. In addition, unusual devices began seeing gravitational waves in 2015, very subtle oscillations in spacetime predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916.

About 50 gravitational waves have been recorded

Gigantic instruments that can detect these subtle vibrations are called gravimetric interferometers. One of them – the Virgin – is in service in Italy near Pisa and two others – Lego – in the United States. By discovering these new vibrations in the universe, astrophysicists are revealing hitherto unseen stars: black holes and other compressed objects. In fact, the last dance of two black holes orbiting each other emits gravitational waves that travel through the universe and can be detected on Earth.

Today, five years after this initial discovery, these devices have recorded about 50 gravitational wave paths. Their analysis provides a better understanding of black holes and their rotation, as well as neutron stars. The combination of these discoveries and observations of different wavelengths and particles opens a new era of astronomy.

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In 2017, astrophysicists photographed Kilonova with rays from the merging of two neutron stars, and its electromagnetic radiation was observed in 70 observatories in space and on Earth. To tell us this story and answer your questions, we have the opportunity to join us with Mary Ann Bisward, a researcher at CNRS working at the Côte d’Azur Observatory in Nice, who specializes in gravitational waves, and Sarah Antire, a researcher at the Laboratory of Astronomical Particles and Cosmology in Paris and coordinator of the GRANDMA Telescope network devoted to science Astronomy of many messengers.

Black holes, virtually undetectable waves, kilonova, the global coordination of understanding the universe with a new eye, don’t miss this movie Thursday May 27 at 5:30 pm Live broadcast on our channel twitch.tv/sciencesetavenir then in a postponed reset on the site Science and the future.