Called one of the most important discoveries of the last 100 years, researchers announce they've confirmed Einstein's prediction of gravitational waves emerging from two colliding black holes, Feb. 11, 2016,

Called one of the most important discoveries of the last 100 years, researchers announce they've confirmed Einstein's prediction of gravitational waves emerging from two colliding black holes, Feb. 11, 2016, AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Einstein’s Gravitational Waves Confirmed

Interstellar discovery across more than 1 billion light years heralds a new understanding of the universe.

Turns out, Einstein was right. Two black holes colliding converts a portion of their mass into energy, resulting in gravitational waves, strange disturbances in the very fabric of spacetime.

An international collaboration of researchers affiliated with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, announced Thursday “the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger” according to the paper, published today in the Physical Review of Letters. The now-proven existence of such waves, and especially the technology that went into finding them, could have relevance for future communications, perhaps enabling future long-distance communications technologies that don’t use the electromagnetic spectrum in the way that we do today. Or it could inform the development of future location positioning techniques that don’t rely on GPS. Both of those would have relevance for a military that is increasingly worried about the security of the global positioning system and an increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum. More importantly, the discovery could change as well as humanity’s understanding of space and time.

The observance occurred Sept. 14 at 5:51 AM. What specifically they detected was the faint remnants of two black holes merging some 1.3 billion years ago. Each black hole was about 150 kilometers in diameter but some 30 times the mass of the sun. They were accelerating to half the speed of light when they collided.

It’s an incredible feat of detective work considering that, by the time those waves reached Earth, each one is one thousandth the diameter of a proton.

How does LIGO work? You take a laser and aim it a beam splitter, then you aim the two split beams at two mirrors that are about 4 kilometers apart. The mirrors are hanging above the ground, “quadruple suspended,” which isolates them from unwanted vibrations. Then you pass the beams that they reflect through a mass test and then a photodetector. If, after calculating the possible interference from all the noise (which is the real hard part) you observe a distorted waveform, that could be your gravitational wave. That’s what the researchers detected for about 20 milliseconds.

They repeated the observance at two sites, one in Livingston Louisiana and, 70 seconds later, at a second detector in Hanford, Washington. The wave distortion that they observed at both sites corresponded to Einstein’s equations, and a lot of supercomputer modeling, for gravitational waves.

“We had only seen warped space time when it is very calm“ said Kip Thorne of Caltech, one of the authors of the paper, at a National Press Club briefing on Thursday. The breakthrough opened a window into “a violent storm in the fabric of space and time.”

It also shows the precision of modern instruments for detecting minute disturbances in the universe, which could go on to change what is known about the electromagnetic spectrum. The researchers imagine that there could be technological spinoffs in terms of lasers.

It could also yield new—through indirect—breakthroughs in electronic communications. After all, Einstein’s theories on relativity are part of the reason we can use smart phones and cell signals for localization. No, it doesn't mean we will be able to use gravity waves to make phone calls. It may be theoretically possible to use a new understanding of gravity waves to change the way we communicate using the electromagnetic spectrum. Electromagnetic waves are produced from oscillation in the electromagnetic fields. Gravity waves are produced from changes in the fabric of space time. But you still need to reduce noise in the electromagnetic spectrum to see it. At very least, the breakthrough holds promise for new ways of observing the physical echo of events on earth at great distance.

“These gravitational waves are very hard to detect … They don’t interact very much with anything else. We had to build this fancy apparatus to be able to see these things. So that says something very important,” said Reiner Weiss of MIT.

But the real value: “An understanding of the fundamental laws that control the universe,” according to Thorne, which he called “Much bigger than any kind of technological spinoff.”

Duh.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.