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A&S Physicist Talks with Digital Trends About Next-Generation Gravitational-Wave Observatories

Ballmer portrait

Posted on: Jan. 29, 2024

Stefan Ballmer, professor of physics and inaugural director of the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and Astrophysics, was quoted in a Digital Trends article titled, What it takes to build a next-generation observatory.

Ballmer, who is a gravitational wave expert, spoke about how the technology being developed now will make a significant impact long into the future.

“It’s on some level a service to the next generation of physicists,” Ballmer said. “But also, when you sit down and see what’s possible with these machines — that you can build something that sees every black hole right back to the very first stars, that you can observe phenomena from stellar size objects that are in these galaxies that even the Webb telescope has trouble resolving — not trying to do that would be almost a crime.”