Hey gravity, give us a wave!

In addition to confirming the existence of gravitational waves and further vindicating Einstein’s theory of general relativity, this experiment also provided us with the strongest evidence yet for the existence of black holes, which have only been observed indirectly until this point.

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 resulting black hole amounted to 62 solar masses, with the equivalent of three suns converted into gravitational-wave energy.

This collision of two black holes had been predicted but never observed.

As per the Huffingtonpost.in report, Sanjeev Dhurandhar, a scientist with the Inter-University Centre of Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, had detected the gravitational waves nearly thirty years ago before the worldwide scientific community.

Scientists have described gravitational waves as “the ripples in fabric of space-time”. “It’s a confirmation that we know how gravity works in these very extreme conditions of colliding black holes”. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have detected gravitational waves”. The event occurred 1.3 billion years ago.

“Pack 30 times the mass of the sun into that, then accelerate it to about half the speed of light”, and that is just for one black hole, Reitze said.

The scientific milestone was achieved using a pair of giant laser detectors in the United States, located in Louisiana and Washington state, capping a decades-long quest to find these waves. “It’s like we’ve nearly been deaf to it forever”, said Jim O’Leary, of the Maryland Science Center.

Albert Einstein originally had the idea of gravitational waves emerging from his theory of relativity, which he unveiled nearly 100 years before this massive discovery.

In the video below, scientists Kip Thorne and David Reitze, among others, explains what the theory said and why it was so hard to prove it.

“It should develop a whole new slew of discoveries we haven’t understood before”, he added.

During the 1970s and 80s, Joseph Taylor, Jr and his colleagues first demonstrated the existence of gravitational waves.