#1 Einstein's prediction
Back in 1916, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of something called a gravitational wave. In 1992, a group of scientists launched a large-scale physics experiment to try and detect these waves. Today, those scientists have announced that they proved Einstein's prediction to be correct and may have ushered in the beginning of a scientific Renaissance.
#2 What are gravitational waves? Here’s an example as described by Ars Technica:
"(Gravitational waves) are generated when two massive bodies are in close orbit around each other. Rather than entering a stable orbit, their interactions produce gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space."
The problem until today? Despite scientists feeling confident that gravitational waves are a real thing, they had never detected any.
#3
For many years, the scientists found nothing but radio silence as they tried to listen to space. Instead of giving up, they then shut down the systems to fine-tune, update, and increase sensitivity of the tools. Within a day of going back online last September, the updated Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory detectors (one in Louisiana, the other in Washington) picked up a tinny audible bleep.
Ahem. EUREKA!
Despite the sudden, almost convenient, pick-up of these waves after a decade of nothing, the scientists behind the LIGO experiment are confident in these readings and are now revealing their findings
Kip Thorne, a renown expert in black holes said:
"With this new discovery, we humans are embarking on a marvelous new quest: the quest to explore the warped side of the Universeobjects and phenomena that are made from warped spacetime."
#4
The gravitational waves came from the massive collision of two black holes that is estimated to have occurred 1.3 billion years ago. One of these black holes was 36 times the size of our sun, the other was 29 times the size. The resulting explosion, for just a fraction of a second, created more power than exists in our entire visible universe.
Essentially, we can now listen to space. Think about that for a minute.
A new dimension has been added to how we can learn more about our universe. These waves can help us figure out the size of our universe some day. They can paint a picture for us of other major events in our universe that predate us by millions and billions of years.
LIGO expects that, now that they have confirmed the existence of these waves, they can further fine-tune and align their instruments, and open up others around the globe. They also anticipate more waves of this nature reaching earth in the coming years. In fact, LIGO may be currently investigating two additional potential signals that their updated technology detected in December of last year.
Louisiana State University's Gabriela Gonzalez said:
"This detection is the beginning of a new era: the field of gravitational wave astronomy is now a reality."
