When two black holes encounter each other, they produce gravitational waves, ripples of space and time that will travel across the cosmos. Along  this cosmic trip, the gravitational waves will encounter massive galaxies whose gravity could bend their trajectories and even produce multiple copies of the original signal. These lensing signatures are key to explore the matter distribution in the Universe.

As the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaborations prepare for the upcoming fourth observing run, a new lensing group has been formed to strengthen their searches of gravitational wave lensing. Jose María Ezquiaga will co-chair this group, leading the collaboration efforts to be ready for the first detection of lensing.

Gravitational wave lensing will be another probe of the Strong group to unveil the dark universe that will involve Juno, Jose and other members.