Friday, February 12, 2016

New Window to Study the Universe!

Scientists have detected the very first known gravitational waves. The waves were created by the merging of two black holes 1.3 billion light years from earth. One of the amazing things about this discovery is that Einstein predicted their existence before there was any proof and we now know he was, once again, right.  Another neat thing is that they had just barely gotten the LIGO operational when they detected the blip that made the black hole merging event known. These disturbances are no bigger than a fraction of the width of a proton so really really really really small. The reason this is a big deal is that it is a new tool with which to observe and explore the universe. Back in Galileo's day, all scientists had was their eyes and the early telescopes. Then telescopes got much better and we added infrared and radio wave technology and were able to learn a lot more. Gravitational waves are like a new window with which to study the universe. 


Here is a simplified explanation that is really helpful. 


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