Gravity Waves Visible?

Scientists have observed the warping of space-time generated by the collision of two black holes more than a billion light-years from Earth.

17:42 12 February 2016

An international team of scientists has detected the warping of space-time generated by the collision of two black holes more than a billion light-years from Earth. They said their discovery will usher in a new era for astronomy and that the detection of the gravitational waves culminates the decades of searching.

 

The research, which was published in the journal Physical Review Letters, was conducted by the LIGO collaboration that operates a number of labs around the world. Two of its facilities in the United States have picked up the black hole merger that radiated three times the mass of the sun in pure gravitational energy.

 

Prof David Reitze, executive director of the LIGO project, said: "We have detected gravitational waves," 

 

"It's the first time the Universe has spoken to us through gravitational waves. Up until now, we've been deaf."

 

Prof Karsten Danzmann, the European leader on the collaboration, said: "There is a Nobel Prize in it - there is no doubt.”

 

"It is the first ever direct detection of gravitational waves; it's the first ever direct detection of black holes and it is a confirmation of General Relativity because the property of these black holes agrees exactly with what Einstein predicted almost exactly 100 years ago."