What We Know: Scientists find Einstein’s gravity waves

But the finding had to be verified, using such means as conventional telescopes, before the scientists could say with confidence it was a gravitational wave.

“We are fairly certain that we will find more and more signals”, Marka said.

Gravitational waves are real, and scientists have detected them. If a gravitational wave passes through the detector, it will squeeze one leg and stretch the other, causing the distance to change and thus creating slight differences in timing.

It took two large detectors with “L” shaped arms 2.5-miles long, called “LIGO,” to capture the sound of those black holes. The is a new era of astronomy.

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected these gravitational waves coming from the collision and merging of two black holes 1.3 billion years ago.

At the news conference, they played an audio recording of this, a low rumbling pierced by chirps. Some said this is bigger.

“It’s akin to when Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens and the discoveries that followed”.

Gravitational waves, often said to look like ripples in a pond, are able to answer questions about creation of astronomical phenomena and disturbances, such as the merging of black holes, collision of neutron stars, supernova explosions and more.

For discovering the pulsar and indirectly confirming the existence of gravitational waves, the two were awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Almost a decade ago, the method of how to detect gravitational waves was proposed by Sanjeev Dhurandhar and Satya Prakash who worked at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune. At its peak, the power output was about 50 times the output of all the stars in the visible universe, the researchers said.

This detection also proves that binary black holes – a system of two black holes orbiting each other – can exist, Reitze said.

“I’m sure he’d be nothing but overjoyed, but not surprised”, McWilliams said. “It is certainly a very good signal, it seems”, said Shafi.

Rumors about the detection had swirled for weeks.

In a stunning discovery, scientists have confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, which Albert Einstein had predicted nearly 100 years back. He said, “Today’s breakthrough depended on the talent of brilliant scientists and engineers from many nations, but also advances in computing that only recently became possible”.

The announcement was made by scientists from the California Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Ligo Scientific Collaboration.

Twenty years later, they started building two LIGO detectors in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, and they were turned on in 2001. We need to make more observations and wait for a hundred percent confirmation.

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime.

The instruments are so sensitive they can detect waves that push and pull the entire Milky Way Galaxy “by the width of your thumb”, according to team member Chad Hanna of Pennsylvania State University. Explaining how this path breaking experiment was done, Ashtekar said laser beams are bounced between mirrors 4km apart.

What even are gravitational waves? That mismatch is what LIGO detects.

The scientists poured over the data for months before announcing the discovery and releasing their science this week.