Einstein Was Right, Gravitational Waves Are Real

Some said this is bigger.

Astrobites: Opening Our Ears to the Universe: LIGO observes Gravitational Waves!

Black holes hold a lot of potential answers, but we still don’t know much about them.

Gravitational waves: Ripples in space time theorized by Einstein a century ago, but never directly observed…until now. He described how waves are produced by disturbances in the fabric of space and time when a massive object – like a black hole or a neutron star – moves. But now scientists can say they have direct proof.

That is apparently the sound gravitational waves would make if gravitational waves could make a sound.

“And when we hear the universe, we will learn about the secret life of black holes – their birth, their death, their marriage, their feeding”.

“This is truly a scientific moonshot and we did it. We landed on the moon”, said David Reitze, LIGO’s executive director. “This is just a start”. “It gives me chills”, said Urban. Gravitational waves pass through everything, so the result traveled through the universe for that time before reaching Earth.

“What’s really exciting is what comes next”, said Reitze. “It’s like we were deaf so far and this is a completely new window onto the universe for discovery”.

According to Business Insider, LIGO’s sensitivity will increase by 1,000 times over the next four years, greatly increasing the chances of observing more gravitational waves.

Scientists are also testing technology in space that could be used to detect gravitational waves free from the interference and noise on earth.

The scientific milestone, announced at a news conference in Washington on Thursday, was achieved using a pair of giant laser detectors in the U.S., located in Louisiana and Washington state, capping a long quest to confirm the existence of these waves. The team has been working on taking the signals detected by LIGO and writing statements about them-i.e. “These were two black holes, these masses merged a billion light years away”. Essentially, LIGO detects waves that stretch and squeeze the entire Milky Way galaxy “by the width of your thumb”, Hanna said. At the bottom, the two beams bounce off mirrors, sending them back to their starting points. The evidence of gravitational waves is captured in audio form.

Prominent scientists from around the globe have already taken to Twitter to offer their congratulations to the team who made the discovery.