Regis Teacher Among Scientists Who ‘Heard’ Sound in Space

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Thanks to scientists, including a physics teacher at Regis High School in Manhattan, gravitational waves have been directly measured, supporting Einstein’s theory of General Relativity.

On Sept. 14, the faint “chirp” of two black holes colliding 1.3 billion light-years away was heard and recorded by scientists in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration. Dr. Luca Matone, a physics teacher at Regis High School, was one of the 1,000 scientists involved in the LIGO Collaboration.

The collision of the two black holes generated a gravitational wave, a ripple in space and time propagated throughout the universe. It is very much like the ripple generated when a pebble is thrown into a pond.

“Instead of seeing, you can listen to events in the night sky,” said Dr. Matone in an interview with CNY Feb. 12. “From now on, there will be a way to look at the universe in a different light.”

He called the results of the research “absolutely stunning.”

The LIGO Collaboration made the discovery with a pair of antennas in Washington state and Louisiana. The two machines allowed scientists to actually “hear” sounds in space. Both picked up the “chirp” of the black holes colliding.

Dr. Matone, who holds a doctorate from the University of Paris, spent much of his career involved in gravitational wave research.

He assisted in the production of the interferometer at the LIGO observatory in Hanford, Wash. He was also among the scientists who wrote the detection paper, “Observation of Gravitational Waves From a Binary Black Hole Merger,” published in the “Physical Review of Letters” on Feb. 12.

The detection paper assembled the research so other scientists could review it. “This is real,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to see real science. Generally, there are answers in the back of the textbook. For this, there are no answers in the back now.”

As a teacher at a Catholic high school, Dr. Matone discussed the intersection of faith and science. “A lot of my colleagues are atheists,” he said. “I never really found a conflict between the two.”

For example, he spoke about one night during his research when he found himself in the desert, preoccupied with his own thoughts and problems. He remembered finally taking a moment to breathe and just look up at the sky, marveling at what he saw.

“It makes you wonder,” he said. “There was never a conflict between the supernatural and science for me.”

Some 100 juniors and seniors gathered in a large lecture hall at Regis Feb. 12 for a presentation by Dr. Matone, which included photos of the LIGO inteferometers and the sound recording of the black holes colliding.

Luke D’Cruz, a junior, said, “This is probably going to be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the century and Dr. Matone can say he was part of it.”

“He’s a real role model,” he said.