On September 14, 2015, after years of work, LIGO detected its first gravitational wave, a signal from a collision of black holes that occurred over a billion years ago.

LIGO is like a gigantic musical instrument designed to record the shape of the ringing drum of spacetime, allowing scientists to listen to gravitational waves rather than just taking snapshots of them.

The first generation of LIGO detected nothing, but the team persevered, demonstrating remarkable resilience and determination in the face of challenges.

Gravitational waves are created when massive objects like black holes move, causing ripples in the fabric of spacetime that can be detected on Earth.

Gravitational waves are not light; they are emitted in the rippling of spacetime and can be likened to sound, as they can be detected in the human auditory range if one is close enough to colliding black holes.

The construction of LIGO took 50 years, showcasing the tenacity and commitment of the scientists involved, many of whom dedicated their lives to the project.

Gravitational waves, while detected by LIGO and predicted to carry energy, present a challenge in general relativity because covariant definitions based on stress energy yield zero energy for pure gravitational waves.

If we digitize the human brain and transmit it via laser, we could travel across the universe at the speed of light, experiencing different locations almost instantaneously.

Supermassive black holes, which can be billions of times the mass of the sun, are believed to have formed very early in the universe's history, possibly through direct collapse of primordial matter rather than from the remnants of stars.