Hello You, this is the podcast of Inside Science from BBC Radio 4, first broadcast on the

119th of October, it says here, I wrote this script, I think it's the 19th of October, I'm Adam Rutherford,

it's all about gravitational waves today, about which I am ridiculously excited,

mostly because the new discovery is absolutely bewilderingly cool, but also because when they were

first discovered in 2016 2016 I was on holiday

actually writing some stupid book or something and I had to listen in from home

not just a little bit jealous anyway we're all about the big hot explosions today inside the famous eruption of

Krakatoa in 1883 where Pumice rained down into the sea and blast waves traverse the

planet seven times to try and understand why it was so devastating.

And while we're talking about hot things, I get schooled on the difference between

centigrade Celsius and Kelvin.

But first. The sound of stars colliding or at least an audio

version of what happens when neutron stars die.

You probably heard it in the news earlier this week, the latest discovery of gravitational

waves, this time not from black holes colliding, but from two equally exotic neutron stars

spiraling into each other. Now it's our job on inside science to get behind

the headlines and more importantly to undo the hype and give a real cool-headed scientific

analysis of landmark new discoveries.

So let me begin by saying that this is freaking awesome. This is a story that has everything. Physics, astronomy, chemistry, gold, rock and roll.

Here's a quick recap of the story so far.

Predicted by Einstein, gravitational waves are subtle ripples in space time caused by immense cosmic

events.

...