The waves were made from two black holes crashing together more than a billion years ago.
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Scientists reported in 2014 they had detected gravitational waves using a telescope in Antarctica; however, the discovery turned out to be a false alarm after further research found the data was contaminated by cosmic dust.
The detection of Gravitational waves proves the existence of black holes right as the property of those Black Holes mirror what Einstein predicted all those years ago.
UT astronomy students watched the big announcement Thursday in class. In fact, this caused so much doubt to Einstein regarding the prospect of gravitational waves being ever detected that he twice declared them “non-existent” before reverting to his original position.
In all, the scientists’ game-changing discovery could allow researchers to have a more direct look into black holes, and even the elusive topics of dark matter and dark energy, the latter two of which are invisible for the most part.
Explainer: What are gravitational waves?
Cal State Fullerton researchers were key contributors to the detection of gravitational waves that were first discovered on September 14, 2015.
Both Creighton and his brother, Jolien, were involved in the study confirming the existence of gravitational waves.
“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.
Professor Ojakangas says understanding the nature of the universe has helped us in huge ways. Astrophysict Szabolcs Márka, has proclaimed that the skies will never be the same after this phenomenal proof that approves the presence of gravitational waves.
The two colliding black holes sent a ripple through this fabric.
However, the waves are so small they need a detector like LIGO, capable of measuring distortions one-thousandth the size of a proton, to observe them.
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“Colliding black holes and gravitational waves are our first attractive examples”. “For for the first time, we’ve been able to listen to the sounds that the universe has been transmitting to us from the beginning of time”, said Nergis Mavalvala, a physics professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
