Black Holes and Time Warps the Topic of Upcoming Lecture

Kip Thorne, professor emeritus of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology, will present a lecture called “The Warped Side of our Universe: From the Big Bang to Black Holes and Gravitational Waves” on Tuesday, April 3.

A staple in the astrophysics community since the 1970s, Thorne will discuss how not every object or occurrence in the universe is comprised of matter, but rather from warped space and time. The three main examples of this are black holes, the big-bang (from which the universe was born) and ripples in the fabric of space-time called gravitational waves.

“The physics department invited Thorne to make this lecture because of his many important contributions to the field of astrophysics,” said Dan Kennefick, assistant professor in the department of physics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

Technological advances in astrophysics are slowly opening a window into the ‘warped side’ of the universe, giving humanity its first look at this relatively unknown side of astrophysics.

“Thorne has played a seminal role in encouraging and developing a project that will build a gravitational wave observatory,” said Kennefick. “He is also very active in presenting science to the public, having written a popular book and also contributed to the science behind the book and film Contact. He is currently working on a science fiction movie, Interstellar, for which he has written the screenplay.”

The lecture, part of the Maurer Distinguished Lecture Series, will be held in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main from 7:30 to 9 p.m.