GRAVITATIONAL WAVES DISCOVERED 100 YEARS AFTER EINSTEIN'S PREDICTION
Albert Einstein was a German-Born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity.
What is the general theory of relativity?
The General Theory of Relativity was published over 100 years ago and was the first theory to pose space-time as a concept. Part of that paper predicted the yet undiscovered gravitational waves.
That is until today. David Reitze, the executive director of LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), announced at the National Press Club in Washington, “We have detected gravitational waves. We did it.” The announcement comes six months after the initial detection and the thorough vetting of their findings.
What are gravitational waves?
Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time. These particular waves were created by the merging of two black holes more than 1.3 billion years ago. It took that long for the waves to finally reach Earth.
How does this discovery impact science?
This does a number of things for science. First off, it confirms that black holes exist. Up until now, they were just an unproven theory and indirect evidence. For the first time, we’ve actually detected two black holes merging.
This also opens up an entirely new field of science called gravitational wave astronomy. Now instead of just seeing the universe through the electromagnetic spectrum, we can now hear it.
