In the 1970s astrophysicist Kip Thorne was one of the pioneering scientists who believed that gravitational waves – ripples in space-time caused by massive events like two black holes colliding – could be detected. Achieving that goal took almost five decades, a collaboration of more than 1,000 scientists and a lot of hard – and fun – work. But their detection, on 14 September 2015, opened up a whole new way to see, and understand our universe.
Kip Thorne, Ron Drever and Robbie Vogt, the first director of LIGO, in 1990.
Credit: Caltech Archives