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Wednesday, March 21, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Exploring gravitational waves
The Laser Interferometer
Gravitational
wave
Observatory (LIGO) col-
laboration made two historic
announcements in February
2016.
The first was that gravi-
tational waves, predicted by
Albert Einstein 100 years
earlier, had been definitively
observed for the first time.
The second was that those
waves constituted the first
observation of the merger
of two distant black holes,
not detectable by any other
means and indicating the
power for discovery of this
brand-new way of observing
the universe.
Gravitational waves, it
turns out, are literally disrup-
tions in spacetime itself.
On Tuesday, March 27,
Dr. Larry Price will highlight
in accessible language the
significance of gravitational
waves to scientific under-
standing of the natural world
and the immense technologi-
cal achievement that resulted
in their detection.
Dr. Price will speak at The
Belfry as part of the Frontiers
in Science lecture series
sponsored by the Sisters
Science Club. The lecture
begins at 7 p.m.
Almost all past astronomy
and cosmology has involved
observations based on detect-
ing electromagnetic radiation
from the cosmos, whether by
light, radio waves, or X-rays.
Such observations have led
to better understanding of
gravity and verification of
Einstein’s theories by find-
ing anomalies in the motion
of planets or the deviation
of starlight during a solar
eclipse. But 2016’s announce-
ment of the first detection of
gravitational waves — waves
PHOTO COURTESY SIMULATING EXTREME SPACETIMES PROJECT - WWW.BLACK-HOLES.ORG
The collision of two black holes is illustrated in this computer simulation.
The two merging black holes are roughly 30 times the mass of the sun.
produced 1.3 billion years
ago in the collision of two
monstrous black holes —
has shown how scientists
can detect gravitational
events directly. The signal
was extremely weak when it
reached Earth, but the discov-
ery promises an entirely new
way of observing the farthest
reaches of space and time.
Now scientists will be able
not only to observe previ-
ously undetectable processes
in the universe, Dr. Price
explains, but also to corre-
late the observations we can
already make with new infor-
mation coming from gravita-
tional waves.
Using a lively multime-
dia presentation, Dr. Price
will help us understand the
enormity of this scientific
advance, which garnered the
2017 Nobel Prize in physics
for LIGO’s lead researchers.
Dr. Price, a physicist spe-
cializing in elementary parti-
cles, holds degrees in physics
from Pomona College (BA)
and Harvard University (MA
and PhD). He is retired from
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a career at Argonne National
Laboratory, where he held
the rank of senior physicist
and was director of the High
Energy Physics Division.
Although he did not partici-
pate in the LIGO experiment,
he has maintained a keen
interest in it from its incep-
tion. He has served on multi-
ple national and international
committees for particle phys-
ics and related fields, includ-
ing the High Energy Physics
Advisory Panel, the U.S.
Federal Advisory Committee
for elementary particle
physics.
Social hour begins at 6
p.m. with light fare, beer, and
wine available. The lecture
begins at 7 p.m. Admission
is $5; Science Club annual
donors, teachers and students
are admitted free. The Belfry
is located at 302 E. Main Ave.
in Sisters.
Online vision survey
launches Thursday
The local visioning project,
Sisters Country Horizons, will
launch a regional survey at 7
a.m. on Thursday, March 22.
The survey will gauge
what respondents value most
about Sisters Country and
what they envision for the
community in the future. The
survey will be available online
on the initiative’s new website
at www.sistershorizons.org.
Sisters Country is being
defined as the City of Sisters
and surrounding unincor-
porated communities and
residential areas, ranches and
farms. Both residents and visi-
tors are encouraged to take the
online survey.
Sisters Country Horizons
is led by the City of
Sisters, Deschutes County
and the Central Oregon
Intergovernmental Council.
The project is following a
values-based collaborative
approach. By analyzing what
residents value about their
community, and where they
want it to head in coming
years, a community can set
realistic strategies and actions
to reach those goals and be
confident that people who live
there are supportive of these
directions.
Survey findings will be
unveiled by the project team
at four community forums
planned for June. They also
will form the foundation of
a Vision Action Plan to be
released in late 2018 or early
2019. Once completed, the
Vision Action Plan will help
guide government agencies,
nonprofit groups and the pri-
vate sector in planning and
projects.
In addition to the survey,
the project is interviewing
opinion leaders throughout the
area and is holding a series of
community meetings in April
and May to gather input from
residents. Residents also will
be invited to conduct their
own “kitchen table” conver-
sations. And Sisters Country
Horizons will have a booth at
community events during the
summer months.
The last visioning and
planning effort in Sisters was
completed in 2007. The city
and the surrounding unincor-
porated community has grown
significantly since then. The
project will revisit the ear-
lier plan to assess what has
been accomplished and what
remains unaddressed.
NXT Consulting Group
of Portland and Bend will
oversee the project’s scope
of work. The City of Sisters,
Deschutes County and Central
Oregon Intergovernmental
Council are providing
funding and staff support.
Oregon’s Kitchen Table, a
program at Portland State
University, will help with
community outreach work.
Sisters’ Citizens4Community
has assisted the project, ask-
ing visitors to its events this
month to fill out a Horizons
questionnaire.