The chirp heard ‘round the world: 10 years of catching the gravitational wave

By Nell Greenfieldboyce,

Regina G. Barber, Hannah Chinn

Published September 17, 2025 at 10:48 AM EDT

Illustration of two black holes orbiting each other. Eventually the black holes will merge, producing gravitational waves; thanks to LIGO, astronomers can now detect those waves .

For centuries, the primary way that astronomers studied outer space was through sight. But just ten years ago, scientists successfully established a way to 'listen' to our cosmos – detecting gravitational waves created by huge cosmic events that took place billions of light years away.

But what do those gravitational waves tell us? What events are they commonly caused by? And what could they tell us about our universe? Short Wave host Regina Barber and NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce dive in.

Interested in more space science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn and was edited by Amina Khan. Nell Greenfieldboyce and Tyler Jones checked the facts. Jimmy Keeley was the audio engineer.