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| Idealized spacetime curvature caused by Earth's mass |
One precept of Einstein's General Relativity is that spacetime is perturbed by the presence of matter.
Generally, the more mass that is contained within a given volume of space, the greater the curvature of spacetime will be at the boundary of this volume.More than a century following Einstein's proposition of gravitational waves, physicists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have detected the presences of gravitational waves. These waves are believed to be emanating from the collision of two massive black holes that merged some 1.3 billion years ago.
― Gravitational Waves, Wikipedia
The Universe has spoken and we have understood.
― David Blair, LIGO collaboration member
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| Idealized depiction of gravitational waves by Frank Glowna - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 |
LIGO's discovery appears to be empirical confirmation of the gravitational waves predicted by Einstein's 1918 paper Über Gravitationswellen where he calculated the effect of gravitational waves.
The LIGO system consists of identical detectors in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington, that discern tiny vibrations from passing gravitational waves.
It will give us ears to the Universe where before we’ve only had eyes.Ironically Einstein considered gravitational waves a theoretical construct, perhaps too small to be detected.
― Karsten Danzmann, LIGO collaboration member
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
― Albert Einstein
REFERENCES
- Gravitational Waves, Wikipedia.
- Gravitational waves detected -- and that's creating waves in science, Todd Leopold, CNN 11 February 2016.
- Gravitational waves, Einstein’s ripples in spacetime, spotted for first time, Adrian Cho, Science Magazine, 11 February 2016.
- 'The success is very sweet': gravitational wave triumph in quotes, Cosmos Magazine, 12 February 2016.
