Space-time ripples could bring stars within earshot

The sound detected is from two black holes that collided almost 1.3 billion years ago, scientists worked with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) instruments to convert the signals from the collision into sound, enabling us to hear the echoes. 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. The latest analysis of the gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of spacetime – suggests they originated from a system of two black holes, each with the mass of about 30 Suns, that gravitationally drew closer to each other. At the end of a year ago the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the LISA Pathfinder to test the technologies for detecting gravitational waves in space. We did it, ‘ said David Reitze, head of LIGO Laboratory, the scientific facility that found them, to applause at a crowded news briefing in DC.

“It’s been a very long road, but this is just the beginning”, Louisiana State University physicist Gabriela Gonzalez told the news conference, touting the opening of a new era in astronomy. Following the detection, scientists used telescopes and other conventional means to verify their revelation.

The group, which focuses on novel gravitational wave detection algorithms, directly contributed in testing general relativity with the black hole binary termed as GW150914.

Explainer: What are gravitational waves?

The black hole collision was recorded by two widely separated Ligo facilities in the US. “The Universe is stranger than any kind of fiction we could imagine”, he says. “The peak power output was about 50 times that of the light emitted by all the stars in the universe”. “We have turned on a new sense”. “Gravitational waves carry information from some of the most energetically violent events in the universe, meaning that we will have a new spectrum from which to learn new physics”.

These stages are impossible to study with light because the very early universe was “so hot and dense that it was opaque to light”, he says.

For the first time in history, scientists have detected ripples in spacetime, proving right Albert Einstein – and Syracuse University has announced that three of its professors lent an instrumental hand in the process. We never knew that before. “He would, himself, oscillate like a wave on the topic-rescinding and remaking his case, arguing for such waves and then, after redoing the sums, against them“.

LIGO describes the gravitational waves as a final burst of energy created when two black holes collide into a single, larger black hole after spending billions of years approaching one another. For now, though, the scientific community is celebrating one of the biggest discoveries ever.

“This is the holy grail of science”, said Rochester Institute of Technology astrophysicist Carlos Lousto.