What did you do last Friday? Well, we hung out with Dr. Kip Thorne, casually conversed about such light topics as Black holes, Wormholes, and winning friendly bets. Oh, does that sound interesting to you? We call this: just another Friday in the Intersection of Art & Science.
You may have heard of him - he is only known for his prolific contributions to gravitation physics and astrophysics and is one of the world's leading experts on the astrophysical implications of Einstein's general theory of relativity. He is a longtime friend of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan and was the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech until recently.
After traveling through the architecturally AMAZING Center of Astrophysics and Astronomy building at Caltech, Kip gave us an overview on his new discoveries in the science of black holes including the different gravitational rotations after passing the event horizon. We discussed colliding black holes and the intense gravitational waves they produce, sending space and time into wild oscillations moving all the way to us, but too small for us to detect alone. With the help of computers, they are able to test and observe things never seen before. It is so exciting to hear his excitement while discussing the new observations and what that means to the study of our universe.
We had a chance to hear about the bets he has placed with Stephen Hawking which of course we already knew about but nothing beats a first-hand story..and with pictures!
He also mentioned, in passing, the big Hollywood movie he is working on - I see another LASS-O outing in the future.
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