Gravity! The Big Bang, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves (FutureLearn)

Discover why the discovery of gravitational waves in 2016 is a real scientific revolution

The theory of gravity, Einstein’s theory of relativity, was published in 1915. This course presents in a simple way the main ideas behind this theory, before explaining why “gravity is the engine of the Universe.”

We will also explore the 2016 discovery of gravitational waves – a phenomenon that Einstein predicted exactly 100 years ago. By the end of the course, we’ll find out:

- why, the further you look, the more distant the past is;

- how we can tell what happened just after the Big Bang;

- what the dark components of the Universe are;

- what happens when you cross the horizon of a black hole;

- why the discovery of gravitational waves is opening an extraordinary exploration of our Universe and our space-time.

Learn with gravity experts including a Nobel Prize-winning physicist

Over six weeks, you’ll learn with Pierre Binétruy, the Director of the Paris Centre for Cosmological Physics at Paris Diderot University, as well as the cosmologist, George Smoot, who will explain the discovery that earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2006.