GW150914 Resource Page

GW150914 is the name of the first gravitational-wave signal detected by LIGO, which came from the inspiral and merger of two heavy black holes. The signal was detected on September 14, 2015 at 9:50:45 UTC.

The purpose of this simple web page is to provide links to some of the online resources available for GW150914.

The NSF press conference at which the detection of GW150914 was announced

• Recording of the press conference - at the National Press Club on February 11, 2016

Scientific papers

• The paper in Physical Review Letters announcing the detection -- free to download from the PRL website
• LIGO web site with all of the companion papers

Download and analyze the data yourself

• The LIGO Open Science Center data release page for GW150914

Science summaries written for the general public

• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• The First Measurement of a Black Hole Merger and What It Means

My Physics Colloquium talk at the University of Maryland

• Shawhan_UMD_Feb2016.pdf - February 23, 2016

Selected blogs

• Amber Stuver on Living LIGO: LIGO Makes the First Direct Detection of Gravitational Waves
• Shane Larson on WriteScience: The Harmonies of Spacetime, My Brain is Melting

Selections from media coverage

• Cosmic breakthrough: Physicists detect gravitational waves from violent black-hole merger
• Einstein predicted gravitational waves 100 years ago. Here's what it took to prove him right.
• LIGO's success was built on many failures

• Gravitational Waves Detected, Confirming Einstein's Theory
• The Chirp Heard Across the Universe

• Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them