Breakthrough Season 1 Episode 11 Gravitational Waves: Rewinding Time

Breakthrough season 1 episode 11, titled "Gravitational Waves: Rewinding Time" delves deep into the world of astrophysics, exploring an exciting new realm that has only recently been made visible to scientists - gravitational waves. These ripples in space-time have challenged our understanding of the universe, giving us new insights into the mysteries of the cosmos.

The episode begins with a brief history of the discovery of gravitational waves and the tools used by scientists to detect them. We learn that detecting gravitational waves is no easy feat - scientists had to come up with incredibly sensitive equipment that could measure the incredibly small distortions in space-time caused by these waves. But after years of work, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) finally succeeded in detecting these elusive ripples in 2015.

The episode then takes us on a journey through the history of the universe, explaining how we can use gravitational waves to see back in time and uncover the secrets of the past. We learn that when two massive objects collide, they create gravitational waves that travel through space-time like ripples in a pond. By detecting these waves, scientists can not only study the events that caused them, but also learn about the properties of the objects that collided.

One example of this is the detection of a binary black hole merger, which LIGO detected in 2017. This merger created an enormous amount of energy, sending gravitational waves rippling across the universe. By studying these waves, scientists were able to learn about the properties of the black holes that collided, including their masses and spins.

But gravitational waves can do more than just reveal the properties of objects in space. They also offer a glimpse into the very beginnings of the universe itself. The episode explains how, by detecting the cosmic microwave background radiation - the afterglow of the Big Bang - scientists can study the universe as it was just 380,000 years old. But by detecting gravitational waves that were produced just fractions of a second after the Big Bang, scientists can go even further back in time, to the very instant of creation itself.

The episode then introduces us to a new project - the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) - which will be the first space-based detector of gravitational waves. This satellite will operate on a completely different scale than LIGO, with much greater sensitivity and the ability to detect waves from much farther away. LISA will be able to detect mergers of supermassive black holes and even the waves produced by the formation of the first stars.

But what is perhaps most exciting about LISA is its potential to unlock the ultimate mystery of the universe - what happened in the first few moments after the Big Bang. This is when the laws of physics as we know them today did not apply, and scientists have been searching for clues to this time ever since. Gravitational waves could be the key to unraveling this mystery, as they offer a unique perspective on the universe during this time.

The episode concludes by summarizing the impact of gravitational waves on our understanding of the universe, and the incredible potential that still lies ahead. It is clear that this new realm of astrophysics is just beginning to be explored, and we have only scratched the surface of what these waves can reveal about the universe around us. Breakthrough season 1 episode 11 offers a thrilling glimpse into this world, and the exciting future that lies ahead for gravitational wave research.