How did LIGO detect black hole mergers? 🌀𖣠 #shorts #blackhole #space

Dr. Dawson uses a tabletop interferometer to show how LIGO detects gravitational waves from black hole mergers. A light from a laser hits a beam splitter and travels two separate paths, bouncing off mirrors before recombining. This creates an interference pattern of light and dark fringes due to the wave nature of light. The bright fringes occur when the light combines constructively and the dark fringes occur when the light combines destructively. When one beam path is blocked, the pattern disappears. When air pressure shifts one of the mirrors just slightly, the interference pattern shifts too due to the change in distance the light has to travel to reach the wall. This is similar to how LIGO detects gravitational waves in real life. As two massive black holes merge, they send ripples through space that stretch and compress the path lengths of LIGOs kilometer long beam paths ever so slightly, shifting the pattern of light and revealing the presence of a gravitational wave. This demonstration was made by our students in the #TAMUDEEP program and inspired by @briangreeneofficial's demonstration on @colbertlateshow. If you want to shout into a LIGO apparatus, come to the Physics Festival. More info @ tx.ag/PhysicsFest 👍 LIKE and SUBSCRIBE for more fun science content! ➡️ Follow our channels at https://linktr.ee/tamuphysastr #science #experiment #LIGO #DrDawson #laser