Einstein’s 100-year-old prediction of gravitational waves comes true

Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago.

For the first time scientists have directly detected gravitational waves, and have first observed ripples in the fabric of space-time forseen by Einstein a century ago.

“For many reasons that’s huge. one it is kind of like the final lynch pen, sealing, Albert Einstein’s theory of general relatively”.

The waves are created by cataclysmic events, like the collision of black holes or exploding stars, in the distant universe.

The announcement of a press conference on Thursday revived rumors that have been circulating in the scientific community for months that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) team might indeed have directly detected gravitational waves for the first time.

Because gravitational waves are so hard to find top scientists at the LIGO sometimes inject a false signal into the system just to check if the team of 1000 scientists can work in harmony to verify the data.

“We have detected gravitational waves. It is heartening to see the involvement of young scientists in India in this discovery”, said BS Sathyaprakash, professor of physics and astronomy and leader of the gravitational-wave group at Cardiff University, UK.

Both waves speed up at the same rate, a property which is caused by the increasingly fast rotation of the two black holes as they approach their imminent collision. Detecting of the gravitational waves required measuring 2.5 mile laser beams to a precision 10,000 times smaller than proton. “We are not only going to be seeing the universe – we are going to be listening to it”. “I think we’re opening a window on the universe – a window of gravitational wave astronomy”. Not only has the discovery validated Einstein’s theory of relativity, it has also opened doors for a newer understanding of quantum physics.

Some physicists said the finding is as big a deal as the 2012 discovery of the subatomic Higgs boson, known as the “God particle”.

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