If a gravitational wave washes over Earth and goes through this facility, one of those beams will be slightly delayed compared to the other. And so they're looking for a variation in a fraction of the diameter of a proton. If the light recombines perfectly, then nothing happened between those two reflections. Of course, it tells you that the thing actually happened.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. He is the host of the weekly show “Star Talk” on National Geographic and the head of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. He has a new book “Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization” out now.
Neil deGrasse Tyson joins the show to chat with Theo about cosmic musings, the new space race, facts vs. feelings, flat-earthers, climate change and much more.