Most of what we know about the universe comes to us from light. We can stand on the Earth and look up at the night sky and see stars with our bare eyes. The Sun burns our peripheral vision, we see light reflected off the Moon, and in the time since Galileo pointed that rudimentary telescope at the celestial bodies, the known universe has come to us through light, across vast eras in cosmic history.
The universe is not a silent movie, because the universe isn’t silent. I’d like to convince you that the universe has a soundtrack, and that soundtrack is played on space itself. Because space can wobble like a drum. It can ring out a kind of recording throughout the universe of some of the most dramatic events as they unfold.
