"The impossible measurement: the quest for gravitational waves"

On 14 September 2015, the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) achieved the first direct detection of a gravitational wave. After that discovery, awarded with the 2017 Physics Nobel Prize, 90 confirmed observations have revealed new aspects of black holes, neutron stars, and the fabric of the Universe.

This breakthrough was the result of fifty years of work by generations of physicists and engineers who stubbornly continued to push the limit of technology forward, accepting an imaginary challenge issued by Einstein himself, who believed direct observation of such signals was impossible.

In my lecture I will guide you through the folds of this enterprise, through the technological challenges of the observatories of the present, LIGO and VIRGO, and of the future, the Einstein Telescope, through what I my present and past colleagues consider the most beautiful of experiments.

Click here for the live stream.