'As a child, I liked everything, not just space. I enjoyed books about the Big Bang just as much as French, history or economics.' After secondary school, Bonga couldn't decide what to study, so she went for physics ánd psychology. 'In the end, I found that I enjoyed the puzzles of theoretical physics the most.'
Vibration
Her research into black holes involves quite a bit of maths. “I study gravitational waves that escape from around a black hole. Based on those waves we can determine, for example, exactly how heavy the black hole is and how fast it is spinning.'
‘These gravitational waves are picked up by a gigantic network of telescopes around the world. We receive an enormous amount of data, most of which is noise. Our detectors are extremely sensitive, so they pick up every vibration, every wave.’ This means that you need an extremely good model to filter out the relevant research data. 'That's what I do. I have to think about what all that data could mean and then develop a very precise model that extracts only the specific gravitational waves that are being investigated.'
Old models
For about ten years now, telescopes have been so good that we can reel in this huge amount of data. The models are still good, but they will no longer be adequate for the new – even better – generation of telescopes. 'Suppose, for example, that two stars are orbiting each other. They distort each other. The moon and the Earth do the same thing, which is why we have tides. The same thing happens with black holes and stars. These are very small effects, but we are now able to detect them. However, you need the right model to isolate that effect.'
'So I have to keep thinking: what if there's another black hole nearby, what effect would that have? Or what if there's something we don't know about yet: suppose there's a kind of cloud around a black hole, what then? You have to be as flexible and as specific as possible.'
The physicist enjoys this kind of work. 'Some people get a kick out of Sudoku; I see my work as advanced Sudoku. The power of physics is that you can use a formula to describe all kinds of things at the same time. Sometimes I struggle with a problem for months and then suddenly I figure it out. I love that.'
