³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

More than a billion years ago in a far distant galaxy, two black holes - the super-dense remains of exploded stars, each of them 30 times the mass of our Sun - were drawn closer and closer together by their massive gravitational pull until, finally, they collided. It was an event so violent that it released more energy than the combined output of every star in every galaxy in the universe. And it created ripples in the fabric of space-time…

On 14th September 2015, here on Planet Earth, those ripples were detected. A century after Albert Einstein first predicted them, the existence of gravitational waves was confirmed. It was a cause for celebration across the world of physics - and particularly for one Cardiff University astrophysicist whose whole career had been leading to that moment.

In this week’s Science Café Adam is in conversation with Professor Bernard Schutz of the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University. Bernard has just been awarded one of the highest accolades the world of astrophysics can bestow: the Royal Astronomical Society’s Eddington Medal. It honours Bernard’s pioneering work which showed that gravitational waves can be used to measure distances across the universe and the expansion of the cosmos.

Adam talks to Bernard about the influence of Albert Einstein, a career spent hunting signals from the other side of the Universe and that day in September 2015 when his life’s work was at last vindicated.