A NASA animation shows the pending collision of two neutron stars. (NASA)

An international team that includes Chicago astronomers recently observed the collision of two high-density neutron stars, a historic discovery that confirms decades of scientific work. 

An artist’s impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars. (Credits: R. Hurt / Caltech-JPL)

The Nobel Prize committee called it “a discovery that shook the world.” A local scientist explains gravitational waves.

The collision of two black holes—an event detected for the first time ever by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO—is seen in this still from a computer simulation. (Credit: SXS)

The detection of gravitational waves first predicted by Albert Einstein is being hailed as one of the most important discoveries of the modern age. Some local scientists who worked on this groundbreaking achievement are here to explain.