Gravitational Waves: Revolutionary Discovery proves Einstein’s Ripples in Spacetime Exist

On Thursday, researchers from LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory announced they had detected ripples that arrived at the earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. The discovery was made during the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which predicted the relationship between time and space and has had far-reaching impacts on the field of physics and science in general.

“That’s the chirp we’ve been looking for”, said Louisiana State University physicist Gabriela Gonzalez, scientific spokeswoman for the LIGO team.

This theory was also almost proved by Eddington in the year 1919 when it was discovered that the light from the stars bent as it made its way around the sun and when this theory was proved, the gravitational waves due to the distortion in the space-time continuum was also closely proved. “For me, this was really my dream”. Scientists said they hope to have a greatest hits compilation of the universe in a decade or so.

Indeed, black holes are a holy grail of the gravitational wave concept.

“For many reasons that’s huge. one it is kind of like the final lynch pen, sealing, Albert Einstein’s theory of general relatively”. Based on the observed signals, scientists estimate the black holes that collided were about 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun. As the gravitational waves warped spacetime within LIGO’s gargantuan twin detectors, its exquisitely sensitive instruments registered vibrations on the order of thousands of the diameter of a proton.

When two black holes a billion light years from Earth began spinning toward each other, energy radiated outward. “We will hear when a black hole eats a neutron star”, Marka said.

The particular sound heard this time around emerged millions of years ago when two black holes careered into one another.

“gWith eLISA we will be able to observe the entire universe directly with gravitational waves, learning about the formation of structure and galaxies, stellar evolution, the early universe, and the structure and nature of spacetime itself”, says the official eLISA website.

The discovery of gravitational waves is like opening another of our senses, Marka told CNN’s Rachel Crane: hearing the universe as well as seeing it. “So how did both of these black holes become so massive?”