Gravitational waves announcement: Scientists confirm detection of ripples in spacetime

Friday, February 12th, 2016

Gravitational waves announcement: Scientists confirm detection of ripples in spacetime

Author: Steve Connor
Source: The Independent (U.K.)
Publication Date: Thursday 11 February 2016 17:35 BST
Link: Gravitational waves announcement: Scientists confirm detection of ripples in spacetime

Stephan: This is one of the most extraordinary confirmations of theory in the history of science. It has taken 100 years to confirm Einstein's prediction of Gravity Waves, but it has happened. There were hundreds of stories on this, not surprisingly. I chose this report because it clearly describes the research, and it also addresses the implications. Source: Nature

A simulation of the cloud of gas getting swallowed by the black hole
Credit: The Independent

Gravitational ripples in the fabric of spacetime, first predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago, have now been detected by scientists who believe the discovery opens new vistas into the “dark” side of the Universe.

Physicists around the world confirmed that they had detected unambiguous signals of gravitational waves emanating from the collision of two massive black holes 1.5 billion light years away in deep space.

As the two black holes spiralled into one another in a violent collision that was over in a second, immense amounts of matter were instantly converted into energy, which sent shock waves travelling through space for 1.5 billion years until they were picked up by gravitational-wave instruments on Earth.