Scientists detect gravitational waves 100 years after Einstein’s prediction

Reitze said one black hole had the mass of 29 suns; the other was the equivalent of 36 suns.

Accelerating masses will agitate spacetime so much that they will create ripples in spacetime that propagate out at the speed of light, much like ripples in a pond.

“The direct detection of gravitational waves opens a new window for us to understand the world of physics”. In a hugely encouraging leap for the field of physics, this past Thursday scientists confirmed that there is indeed a “chirping” sound produced by gravitational waves when black holes collide.

Mapping the abundance of black holes and frequency of their mergers could get a lot easier. It’s designed so that if a gravitational wave passes by, it will stretch space along one direction of the tunnel and squish space along the direction of the other.

However, the waves are so small that it takes a detector like LIGO, capable of measuring distortions one-thousandth the size of a proton, to observe them.

The sound comes from a signal – converted for demonstration purposes into a sound wave – detected by a team at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project.

Scientists have announced the detection of gravitational waves, a century after they were predicted by Albert Einstein.

News that elusive gravitational waves – tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time caused by violent astronomical events – have been observed for the first time has been hailed in China.

Instruments recorded the sound of the black holes colliding.

One of the biggest breakthrough’s in modern science was made yesterday, regarding how the German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein’s “gravitational waves” prediction has come true. And it is a ringing (pun intended) confirmation of the nature of black holes, the bottomless gravitational pits from which not even light can escape, which were the most foreboding (and unwelcome) part of his theory.

Gravitational waves have been a trending topic in science community since the German-born mentioned them in his theory of general relativity, but they became talk of the town past year when it was rumored that a team of astrophysicists has detected the waves.

Before the discovery, Kaaret said, the vast majority of observations by scientists involved some form of light – either visible light, radio waves or X-rays.

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

After hearing about the discovery of the waves, Kajita, director of the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, said, “It’s a historic feat that researchers in gravitational waves and the general theory of relativity have been waiting for”.

“It is a confirmation of what we thought we knew about gravity”, he said.

Physicist Szabi Marka, a LIGO collaborator based at Columbia University, gushed about the coming scientific revolution to a crowded Columbia lecture hall in NY.