Could LIGO Find MASSIVE Alien Spaceships?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Whenever we open a new window on the universe, we discover things that no one expected. Our newfound ability to measure ripples in the fabric of spacetime—gravitational waves—is a very new window, and so far we’ve seen a lot of wild stuff. We’ve observed black holes colliding, and their oddly high masses challenges our understanding of black hole formation and growth. We’ve seen colliding neutron stars that have forced us to rewrite our ideas of how many of the elements of the periodic table get made. But what else might be hiding in the ripples’ of spacetime? Oh, I know: how about the gravitational wakes caused by planet-sized alien spacecraft accelerating to near light speed. Episode Companion Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsPUh22kYmNDMMSIgDytjwXhDQ4PO45ki Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Matt Caplan & Matt O'Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, & Stephanie Faria Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Spacetime is produced by Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2023 PBS. All rights reserved. End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/user/MultiDroideka Space Time Was Made Possible In Part By: Big Bang Sponsors Bryce Fort Peter Barrett David Neumann Sean Maddox Alexander Tamas Morgan Hough Juan Benet Vinnie Falco Fabrice Eap Mark Rosenthal Quasar Sponsors Vivaan Vaka Glenn Sugden Alex Kern Ethan Cohen Stephen Wilcox Christina Oegren Mark Heising Hypernova Sponsors Chris Webb Zachray Wilson Kenneth See Gregory Forfa Kirk Honour Joe Moreira Bradley Voorhees Marc Armstrong Scott Gorlick Paul Stehr-Green Ben Delo Scott Gray Антон Кочков John R. Slavik Mathew Donal Botkin John Pollock Edmund Fokschaner chuck zegar Jordan Young Daniel Muzquiz Gamma Ray Burst Supporters Matthew Oldfield Lucas Kazakevicius Massimiliano Pala Thomas Nielson Joe Pavlovic Ryan McGaughy Chuck Lukaszewski Edward Hodapp Cole Combs Andrea Galvagni Jerry Thomas Nikhil Sharma Ryan Moser Jonathan Cordovano John Anderson David Giltinan Scott Hannum Bradley Ulis Craig Falls Kane Holbrook Ross Story teng guo Mason Dillon Matt Langford Harsh Khandhadia Thomas Tarler Susan Albee Frank Walker Matt Quinn Michael Lev Terje Vold James Trimmier Andre Stechert Paul Wood Kent Durham Ramon Nogueira Paul Suchy Ellis Hall John H. Austin, Jr. Diana S Poljar Faraz Khan Almog Cohen Alex Edwards Daniel Jennings Cameron Sampson Jeremy Reed David Johnston Michael Barton Andrew Mann Isaac Suttell Bleys Goodson Robert Walter Mark Delagasse Mark Daniel Cohen Nickolas Andrew Freeman Shane Calimlim Tybie Fitzhugh Robert Ilardi Eric Kiebler Craig Stonaha Graydon Goss Frederic Simon Dmitri McGuiness John Robinson Jim Hudson Alex Gan David Barnholdt David Neal John Funai Bradley Jenkins Jiri Borkovec Vlad Shipulin Cody Brumfield Thomas Dougherty Dan Warren Patrick Sutton John Griffith Dean Faulk