EP33 - Sunday, 17th January 2021 7:30pm GMT - Gravitational Wave Astronomy: A Descriptive, Non-Mathematical Talk by George Jones

[Grant]

This week another member @George Jones has kindly offer us to give us his talk 'Gravitational Wave Astronomy: A Descriptive, Non-Mathematical Talk'.

George is a physics Senior Lab Instructor at the University of Northern British Columbia in Canada, where he often gives public outreach talks and demonstrations. A childhood interest in space and astronomy led to his career in physics.

Gravitational waves, first observed in 2015, are produced when compact objects such as black holes and neutron stars merge. Just as useful astronomical information can be extracted from light wave signals, useful information about black holes, neutron stars, and cosmology can be extracted from gravitational wave signals.

Thank you George for offering to give us this talk, our first trans-continental talk! We look forwards to seeing you all there Sunday night.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP33 - Sunday, 17th January 2021 7:30pm GMT - Gravitational Wave Astronomy: A Descriptive, Non-Mathematical Talk by George Jones
Time: Jan 17, 2021 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95805364889?pwd=cGx3VG9KMVhHeTNaL3h0TDk4cTNZZz09

Meeting ID: 958 0536 4889
Passcode: 401233

[happy-kat]

Thank you for arranging another talk.

[Grant]

See you in just under an hour 🙂

[cloudsweeper]

3 minutes ago, Grant said:

See you in just under an hour 🙂

Looking forward to it!!

Doug.

[andrew s]

good summary George, thanks Andrew

[cloudsweeper]

Went very well - thanks to George and the organisers.  (Still finding my way round Zoom mind you!)

Doug.

[Alien 13]

Zoom is a bit of a learning curve, best to log in early and play with the settings.

Alan

[cloudsweeper]

Just now, Alien 13 said:

Zoom is a bit of a learning curve, best to log in early and play with the settings.

Alan

Thanks Alan.  Like the cat by the way!!

Doug.

[cloudsweeper]

Something I'd have asked @George Jones but only thought of it now - 

For a system of two supermassive objects rotating around each other, I can understand how G waves would emanate along the plane of rotation.  But I can't intuitively grasp how a massive object accelerating in a straight line would radiate G waves.  And if the changing position of the source of influence is the cause, why must the object accelerate rather than just move at uniform velocity?

Thanks again for an interesting presentation, George!

Doug.

 

[andrew s]

It's because uniform motion is relative to another body where as proper acceleration is not. You can measure acceleration locally but not velocity as it requires another object.

If there were radiation with uniform motion it would violate the principles of relativity and in particular the fact that all inertial frames are equivalent. 

Regards Andrew 

Edited January 18, 2021 by andrew s