Einstein theorized that “space and time are interwoven into something called “spacetime” – adding a fourth dimension to our concept of the Universe, in addition to our 3D perception of it”, according to a report in The Times of Israel.
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Before joining Sheffield he worked for five years at LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), in the U.S. and for his PhD he worked on the American axion search experiment looking for dark matter.
After decades of effort the scientists are able to detect the gravitational waves due to violent merging of two black holes in the deep space. The aural imprint caused by the gravitational waves of this cataclysmic event is 1.3 billion light years away.
Gravitational waves: Ripples in space time theorized by Einstein a century ago, but never directly observed…until now. It’s not that we just look up and see anymore, like we always have – we actually can listen to the universe now.
During 1962, a pair of Russian physicists proposed an optical method of detecting gravitational waves, but the paper was largely ignored. Prominent scientists celebrated the discovery, noting its significance and the potential for further research. “The signal that LIGO detected on September 14th, referred to as GW150914, came from the merger of two black holes that were about 36 and 29 times the mass of the Sun”. Apparently, this confirms Einsteins theories on the subject and also opens up a whole new area of study for the boffins to explain that which is yet unexplained.
“Colliding black holes and gravitational waves are our first lovely examples”. “We may even see relics of the very early universe, during the Big Bang, and the most extreme energies possible”, Hawking said. 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.
Gaby González, a physicist and spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, played a waveform at the National Press Club on Thursday morning that amounted to a little soundtrack for our universe. And when massive but compact objects like black holes or neutron stars collide, their vast gravity causes space-time to stretch or compress.
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Gabriela Gonzalez, LSC Spokesperson and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the Louisiana State University, echoed the same view.
