A decade from the detection of the first gravitational wave, the story of one of the protagonists of the scientific adventure that has changed astronomy forever.
A decade from the historic first detection of a gravitational waveMatteo Barsuglia – One of the protagonists of this extraordinary scientific adventureA – tells the revolution that changed theastronomy and our understanding of the universe.
On September 14, 2015, the American detector Ligo observed for the first time a gravitational wave: A disturbance of space-time, expected by Einstein a century earlier and generated by the merger of two black holes at over a billion light years from us.
A historical moment. Two years later, the European experiment Virgo he joined the hunt for gravitational waves, with precision by the historic fusion of neutron stars of 17 August 2017. These discoveries opened the way for one new astronomy: a completely new way of explore the cosmosusing a different cosmic “messenger” – gravitational waves – to respond to Large astrophysical questionsof cosmology and fundamental physics.
Matteo Barsuglia, research director at the French CNRS and one of the main responsible for the Virgo detector, guides us in a exciting journey Between discoveries And challenges technological, revealing the human dimension of this epochal adventure. In a story that weaves science, passion And interdisciplinary vision, Barsuglia shows us how the scientific research can help us better understand not only theUniversebut also our place in it.
To follow, we offer you theIntroduction to the Italian edition of the book.
Introduction to the Italian edition
The Nobel Committee had defined the first revelation of gravitational waves, of September 2015, “A Discovery That Shocked The World” (a discovery that has shocked the world). Once so much the planet remained speechless not for some disaster, but because an event, in the depths of the cosmos, had shaken so much the plot of the space-time that it makes it vibrate.
After almost a decade from their first revelation, the vibrations of space-time went from almost science fiction to routine arguments. From the frustration of the years spent waiting, to prudence in front of the first sign, in 2025 we now reveal some source per week. In less than a minute from the passage of the waves, the data of the Virgo observers, Ligo and Kagra are combined and analyzed, and the position of the source is made public. Maybe the notification on the phone will arrive by drinking the coffee at the bar or watching the evening news.
I wrote this book in 2018, in French (Les Vagues de l’Espace-Temps. La Révolution des ones gravitationnelles, Dunod 2019). A need to enter even more confidence with a language that I love, and the language of the country where I have lived for twenty -five years.
At the beginning of 2024 I proposed to Hoepli to translate the book into Italian. The translation experience Inturiosiva, because twenty years earlier I had asked the writer Erri De Luca: “How do you learn to write?”. He replied: “Learn another language. He loves another language, that of a writer you admire. Then, try to translate something you like. This exercise will force you to an intense and precise effort towards your own language, which makes you own a second time.” I already loved another language that I loved, but I never thought of putting the advice of Erri De Luca into practice by translating my book of mine.
During the translation I was a guest for a short period of the beautiful literary translation college of Arles, in the south of France. By attending the translators I appreciated how complex, fragile and important is. A first-line activity in the encounter with artificial intelligence, which can help us reflect on the new ways of production and creation production, without being overwhelmed.
The translation exercise was exciting but more complicated than expected, because since 2018 the world has changed a lot and I think I have changed a lot too: there has been Covid, the ecological crisis has further aggravated and many people, including the undersigned, have finally become aware of the urgency to reflect on our responsibilities in this burning world. In addition, conflicts and new international instability emerged. Finally, my point of view on the first gravitational waves revelations, still “hot” in 2018, purchased some detachment and a little depth of the field. All this has meant that the dialogue between the author of seven years ago and today’s translator was not always easy. However, professional translator friends had assured me that it is normal.
In the college of translators in Arles I kept on my desk, as an amulet, the essay on Umberto Eco’s translation: to say almost the same thing. Here, what you have in your hands is in many respects “another thing” compared to the 2018 edition, but that I hope to keep the enthusiasm and the sense of wonder of those times.
Paris, January 2025
