SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Robert Coyne, one of 1,200 international scientists involved with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, joined the University of Rhode Island as a physics lecturer earlier this fall.
“LIGO is an enormous group of scientists all interested in a common goal – doing astronomy with gravitational waves,” said Coyne, who joined in 2013, in a statement. “Joining isn’t as easy as just signing up. To become a member, I had to show that I’m doing important work for the collaboration.”
Two LIGO members were awarded the Noble Prize in physics in October for their discovery of two neutron stars colliding 130 million light years away, which included detection of gravitational waves. According to the release, neutron stars are “city-sized stellar objects with at least the mass of the sun” and are borne from the explosion of larger stars.
“We can learn a lot from observing something with gravitational waves, and we can learn a lot from observing something with light,” said Coyne in prepared remarks, who believes this discovery will help scientists understand more about the expanding universe, the composition of neutron stars, the origin of heavy elements and the cause of some gamma-ray bursts.
“It might be tempting to call this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Coyne in the statement. “But the greatest thing about this discovery is that it’s not once in a lifetime; it is the first of many. Multi-messenger astronomy is just getting started, and just look at the cosmic mysteries we’re already starting to unravel with only one event. Imagine what we’ll learn once we’ve seen 10, or 100, or 1,000. We’ll find answers to questions we haven’t even thought to ask yet.”
The 32-year-old lives in West Warwick and studied physics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and received his doctorate in physics from the George Washington University, where he wrote a dissertation on gamma-ray bursts – the explosion from two neutron stars smashing into each other – and the gravitational waves that might come from them.
An earlier version of the story incorrectly named Coyne as a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
Emily Gowdey-Backus is a staff writer for PBN. You can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey or contact her via email, gowdey-backus@pbn.com.
