Einstein’s right again: Scientists detect ripples in gravity

Albert Einstein predicted gravitational waves in his general theory of relativity a century ago.

The Tages-Anzeiger and Der Bund, in a shared editorial, raved about a “sensational scientific event worthy of a Nobel Prize” and a “final triumph” for Einstein’s general theory of relativity. But Raab said, now it’s time to party like scientists.

Einstein was right, said Rainer Weiss, co-founder of LIGO and a professor of physics emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These gravitational waves were similar to electromagnetic waves in form, but while the latter could find difficulty in permeating some regions of space, gravitational waves would not.

“Finally these waves have been detected on Earth with an unbelievably sensitive experiment”.

“We’ve seen one of these things but five years from now hopefully we will have seen tens or hundreds, even”, Mr Easther said.

And now researchers say they have detected rumblings from that cataclysmic collision as ripples in the very fabric of space-time itself. But the project has two detectors, both located within the United States – one in Livingstone, Louisiana, and the other at Hanford, Washington.

LIGO-laboratoryThe collision of black holes creates gravitational waves What are gravitational waves?

In other news CNN News reported, for decades, astronomers have gathered strong corroborative evidence of the existence of these waves, but they have never been detected directly – until now.

The wave arrived first at the Louisiana detector, then at the Washington instrument 7.1 milliseconds later.

An eminent British scientist who was pivotal in the discovery of gravitational waves could not celebrate yesterday’s announcement with his colleagues because he suffers from dementia.

The detection of gravitational waves was one of the most important developments in science since the discovery of the Higgs particle. On September 14, 2015, the observatory picked up the long-awaited “chirp” signal, which lasted less than half a second, the end stage of a merger between two black holes. “In this case, we’re actually getting to hear black holes merging”.

It is believed that the waves were created when two black holes merged together and formed a single enormous spinning black hole. The discovery by the LIGO Laboratory confirmed his predictions down to a T. Now, the scientist is just excited on what the gravitational wave discovery could do for astrophysics.

Each LIGO has two giant perpendicular arms more than 2 miles long.

Eminent astrophysicist and the first head of the IUCCA Jayant Narlikar tried explaining to a layman the complexity involved in detecting the gravitational wave.

I greatly admire the gravitational wave pioneers who had the vision and confidence that this is possible, and the team who made it happen! They spread across space, minutely distorting everything in their path.