Speaker Series: Astrophysics at the EcoTarium

Speaker: Vijay Varma, UMass Dartmouth
October 11, 2025
5:00 – 5:45 pm

Smashing Black Holes Together and the Gravitational Wave Revolution!

Two black holes smash into each other, shaking space and time itself. We caught the very first gravitational waves emanating from these violent collisions back in 2015, leading to the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017. On the ten-year anniversary of this groundbreaking discovery, we will explore what new mysteries this new window to the universe might unveil.

Vijay Varma is a computational astrophysicist at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He uses supercomputers and machine learning models to study black hole collisions. He can be found at https://vijayvarma.com/.

Tickets & Important Information

Time: Second Saturday of every month, 5:00 pm
Duration: Approximately 40 minutes
Cost: $6 for members, $7 for non-members (per person). General museum admission will not be charged for members or guests arriving after 4:30 pm on Speaker Series days.
Location: Alden Planetarium
Age Range: All ages are welcome. Recommended 15+

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