The waves from two colliding black holes 1.3 billion years ago were detected on September 14 by twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave observatory (LIGO) detectors in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, both in the United States, according to the statement. To date, we’d been able only to see their aftereffects – black holes themselves were a conjecture. You don’t go to RadioShack and say, ‘I want a $1,000,000,000 gravitational wave detector.
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“We can hear these gravitational waves, we can hear the universe”, LIGO spokesperson Gabriela Gonzalez said during a press conference on February 11.
If, like us, you’re still coming down from the high that is the first direct evidence of Einstein’s gravitational waves – one of the biggest astrophysical discoveries of the past century – you’re gonna want to hear this. “Up to now humanity has been deaf to the universe”.
The waves have been detected by the LIGO project, based in the U.S., which uses highly-sensitive instruments to try and spot the waves as they move past the Earth. While Albert Einstein predicted this collision in his original theory of relativity in 1916, no one had ever observed it. Until now.
The discovery of these waves, created by violent collisions in the universe, excites astronomers because it opens the door to a new way of observing the cosmos.
“They picked up this minute tremble in space, but it is totally shaking up the field of science”, said physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf, director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where Einstein once worked.
“From a scientific point of view, we can look at the universe in a whole new way”, said Sean McWilliams, an astrophysicist and assistant professor of physics and astronomy at WVU’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
LIGO is what we call an interferometer, consisting of two four kilometer “arms” set at right angles to each other, protected by concrete tubes, and a laser beam which is shone and reflected back and forth by mirrors at each end.
Now scientists hope that they can find success launching even more ambitious attempts to capture the waves.
One answer to the query “why is today’s announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves important, and what are the ramifications?” impressed readers beyond all others.
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“There may well be more events in the data already collected”, he said.
