The 10-year anniversary of the first detection of gravitational waves from colliding black holes will be celebrated at an event at The University of Western Australia this month.

The groundbreaking discovery in 2015 detected gravitational-wave signals from the collision of two substantial black holes 1.3 billion years ago, involved collaborators from around the world and was more than 100 years in the making.

Dr Carl Blair, from UWA’s School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing and director of the Gingin High Optical Power facility, said since the first discovery more than 300 coalescence events had been detected by international teams of scientists.

“As a part of a large international collaboration we have discovered merging pairs of neutron stars and neutron stars being gobbled by black holes,” Dr Blair said.

“These detections have given humanity gravitational wave ears on the universe, allowing us to uncover secrets like where gold comes from.”

The discovery will be commemorated with a panel discussion chaired by Dr Blair, who was at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in Livingston at the time of the first detection of gravitational waves.

The panel includes Professor Linqing Wen, Gravitational Wave Astronomy group lead at UWA, whose research includes astrophysics, online real-time detection, multi-messenger astronomy, and machine learning application; Forrest Fellow Fiona Panther studies multi-messenger astronomy and will highlight the Zadko Telescope, which was pivotal in observing the light from colliding neutron stars detected as gravitational waves; and Research Fellow Liu Jian who specialises in the technology of the next generation of gravitational wave detectors.

The expert panel will discuss how the discoveries happened, how UWA contributed and plans for an Australian gravitational wave observatory which  will be followed by a Q&A panel discussion.

PhD students and Postdocs will reveal exciting new discoveries, which are being announced as part of the anniversary celebration, and explain plans for the next decade.

“It is exciting seeing our work on detectors translating into exciting new discoveries”, PhD student Koh Baker said.

The event celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the first gravitational wave detection will be held on Thursday 18 September from 6pm at Clews Lecture Theatre and Physics Atrium. For more information or to register click here.