CU Boulder Scientist Explains Excitement Over Gravitational Waves

The researchers believe that the two black holes each brought 30 times the mass of the Earth’s sun to the collision.

“Gravity waves are a basic prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which is the theory that describes gravity”.

This, perhaps more than anything else, is a fitting beginning for a new age in astrophysics.

The latest discovery is truly monumental since it allows mankind to see the universe in a whole new light. This discovery will open opportunities for further research and enhance scientists’ understanding of space and time. “We have turned on a new sense”.

Artist’s depiction of two black holes merging.

LIGO researchers likened spacetime to a fabric stretched across the universe and reasoned that they should be able, with the proper experiment, to detect disturbances. They may grow old and become black holes, but they will continue to play the spinning game, creating unseen ripples in the universe once they hit each other. “The special tools can see how stars that are very close to black holes act differently than other stars”. The general theory of relativity (linked to special theory of relativity) explains even such microscopic anomalies about space and time so beautifully, and they together form the foundation of modern physics.

When scientists captured the sound of two black holes colliding in space, they did it with a system of supercomputers designed and built by Nor-Tech, a Burnsville firm that’s relatively new in the supercomputing industry.

This kind of research isn’t just limited to black holes.

Now, researchers are expected to study neutron stars with the help of gravitational waves that are extremely dense. We’ll weigh the first evidence of gravitational waves, and what it may mean.

These minuscule changes propagate outwards at the speed of light in a wave-like manner and are known as gravitational waves.

“I honestly thought that gravitational waves were going to be detected after I graduated”, said Nousha Afshari, CSUF physics major.

In the 2020s, the ESA is planning to launch a full-scale version of LISA called eLISA to map space-time’s ripples. The peak could be “heard” by LIGO’s 2.5 mile long L-shaped antennas housing 2.5 million gallons of empty space, a massive vacuum, with mirrors suspended at each end, forming a “resonant cavity”.

The team was able to observe the phenomenon using two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors located in both Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington. The initial detection was made by low-latency searches for generic gravitational-wave transients [41] and was reported within three minutes of data acquisition [43]. Princeton University theoretical physicist David Spergel, who was not involved in the discovery, told The Daily Beast that it may take a while before we fully understand whether time travel is really possible, but general relativity may be key in finding this out. “That’s just how the universe is”, Mavalvala said.