Physicists have been looking for gravitational waves ever since they were predicted by Einstein 100 years ago.
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“We have indirect observation of black holes, we have indirect observation of objects around black holes and their behavior indicate that there should be a black hole”, Marka said. Each was perhaps 150 kilometers (90 miles) in diameter, he said.
The two collided at half the speed of light.
But this week, scientists could announce that they’ve been detected for the first time – as an experiment set up to detect the waves is rumoured to be on the verge of announcing a breakthrough. But after years with no luck, scientists realized they had to build a more advanced detection system, which was turned on last September.
A century ago, Einstein has predicted gravitational waves in his general theory of relativity.
“They measure the distance between two mirrors in an evacuated chamber … so they are seeing directly the stretching of space that’s associated with these gravitational waves”.
Einstein theorized that the collision of two massive objects like black holes would cause the fabric of space-time to warp. To date, we’ve been able only to see their aftereffects – black holes themselves remain a conjecture.
Theories about time travel were given new rays of hope when speculations about the recent discovery of gravitational waves hit the Internet.
Gravitational waves carry information about their dramatic origins and about the nature of gravity that can not be obtained from elsewhere.
Physicists at LIGO – one of the observatories that’s been manically searching for gravitational waves – have now called a press conference for 10.30am EST on Thursday 11 February (2.30am AEST on Friday 12 February).
On Monday, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration issued a press release announcing an update on the search for these waves. “This is just the beginning, the first of many to come”, said Gabriela Gonzalez, the spokeswoman for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.
Scientists may be poised to make a major announcement that will open a new window on the universe. It’d literally be as if we’ve been blind and now can see the universe … in a whole new way.
Grav waves are minute ripples in the fabric of spacetime. It’s so precise it can detect changes the size of a soccer ball in the entire Milky Way galaxy.
HuffPost Science will be covering the meeting tomorrow – stay tuned for details. “Nobody has “seen” that before”. “I would be surprised if we weren’t surprised again”.
Indeed, black holes are a holy grail of the gravitational wave concept.
If confirmed, the discovery of these waves would allow astronomers to study the interior of stars and maybe even understand gamma rays, according to Catherine Man, an astronomer at the Cote d’Azur Observatory in France. Experts say the first direct detection of gravitational waves is likely to be bestowed the same honour.
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If they are found, they would tell us about the energy scale at which inflation occurred, shedding light on the Big Bang itself.
