Scientists have made a breakthrough announcement confirming the existence of gravitational waves, in a landmark finding for physics that opens a new window for studying the cosmos.
Researchers at the $620M Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States said on Thursday that they had detected minute ripples in the structure of space-time for the first time.
The researchers said they detected gravitational waves coming from two black holes – extraordinarily dense objects whose existence also was foreseen by Einstein – that orbited one another, spiralled inward and smashed together.
Einstein first predicted the existence of gravitational waves 100 years ago in his theory of general relativity, suggesting that some of the most powerful processes in the universe, such as colliding black holes or exploding stars, would cause disruption to the fabric of the universe.
The scientific milestone, announced at a news conference in Washington on Thursday, was achieved using a pair of giant laser detectors in the US, located in Louisiana and Washington state, capping a long quest to confirm the existence of these waves.
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