Episode 81: LISA the giant tumbling Space Triangle with Benjamin Ahr Harrison

Posted Sep 30, 2019 by bn

Imagine a Triangle made of lasers, and farther apart than the earth’s orbit around the moon. This triangle tumbles and tumbles as it orbits, distantly following the earth around the sun like a faithful old dog. I’m talking about LISA, one of the NEXT GENERATION of gravitational wave detectors.

On this episode of Ti-Phy we talk about what makes gravitational waves, how LIGO works, and then about two EXCITING new methods of detecting the gravitational waves we cannot detect. Yes, even mighty LIGO has limitations.

The first is the idea of a PULSAR TIMING ARRAY to detect really Long (read: SLOWLY CHANGING) gravitational waves from super massive blackhole mergers. dig the NANOGRAV collaboration. .

the next audacious idea is LISA! the giant tumbling space triangle.
an amazing future in store!

and speaking of THE NEXT GENERATION *cough* our guest today is an expert on that particular star trek franchise. Indeed, Benjamin Ahr Harrison is a humourist and one of the hosts of “The Greatest Generation” (a star trek podcast which discusses TNG and DS9 one episode at a time). He is also a cohost of the “Friendly fire” podcast which is about war movies, and is surprisingly insightful.

Physicists: Dr. Jocelyn Read, and Dr Joey Shapiro Key

Intro Music: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists –Tell Balgeary Balgury is Dead

Exit Music: Ramona Falls – Russia