Geologists of Jackson Hole's video: SONGS FROM THE STELLAR GRAVEYARD: Probing the Cosmos in Gravitational Waves

Presented by Shane Larson, CIERA, Northwestern University. Discovered almost exactly 100 years after Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicted their existence, gravitational waves were first detected on September 14, 2015, by the paired LIGO observatories (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory). Before LIGO, virtually everything we know about the Universe has been discovered from the study of photons --- light in all its myriad forms from radio waves, to visible light, to x-rays and beyond. Now at the dawn of the 21st century, one of the most incredible pieces of advanced technology is providing access to the Cosmos through detection of ripples in the very fabric of spacetime itself.