Narrator: This is Science Today. Gravitational waves are ripples in space and time, which were predicted by Einstein in his Theory of General Relativity. Physicist Lars Bildsten of the University of California, Santa Barbara says these gravitational waves are produced by violent events in the distant universe – such as the collision of two black holes or by the cores of supernova explosions.

Bildsten: These are waves in the gravitational field – they are not electromagnetic waves like what the radio listener is using to get the signal right now.

Narrator: These cosmic gravitational waves carry with them insightful information about their origins and the nature of gravity, so physicists look forward to the findings of a detection facility called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.

Bildsten: The acronym for that is LIGO – it’s two large interferometers. And those two interferometers were constructed by the National Science Foundation under the work of both Cal Tech and MIT. And they are presently operating and searching for gravitational waves in the universe from many different types of sources.

Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.