Gravitation & Multi-Messenger

Gravity bends light, so massive foreground objects magnify and distort background ones — strongly, into arcs and multiple images, or weakly, subtly shearing distant galaxies. Lensing weighs matter directly, mapping dark matter that emits no light.

Detecting the minute stretching and squeezing of space as gravitational waves pass, using kilometre-scale laser interferometers. Since 2015, detectors have heard the mergers of black holes and neutron stars, opening a new sense for astronomy.

Combining light, gravitational waves, neutrinos, and cosmic rays from the same event to learn what no single messenger could tell. The 2017 neutron-star merger, seen in gravitational waves and across the spectrum, was its landmark.

Catching the ghostly neutrinos that stream from the Sun, from supernovae, and from the most energetic events in the universe. Neutrinos pass through matter almost untouched, carrying information from places light cannot escape.