Gravitational Waves Detected

Warrigal

Warrigal

SF VIP
Location
Sydney, Australia
One hundred years ago Albert Einstein predicted gravitational waves. These are not like electromagnetic waves that travel through space but waves or ripples in the very fabric of the universe caused by the movement of massive objects such as neutron stars and black holes. Until now these waves have proved to be very elusive although various attempts to detect them have been made over decades.

The gravitational waves just detected were generated by two big black holes colliding and becoming one. In so doing they released energy equivalent to that of three stars.

Now the evidence had arrived and the scientific world is very excited.

http://www.nature.com/news/einstein-s-g ... st-1.19361
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-12/f ... ed/7140750
https://www.theguardian.com/science/acr ... ies-in-one

This paragraph give some idea why this discovery is important.

Discoveries of this importance in Physics come along about every 30 years. A measure of its significance is that even the source of the wave - two black holes in close orbit, each tens of times heavier than the sun, which then collide violently, has never been observed before, and could not have been observed by any other method. This is just the beginning.

Imagine that your T.V. had only ever received one channel on which the shows were all rather similar to each other. One day a second one appeared which showed completely different programs, like nothing that had ever been broadcast on the old channel. Wouldn’t you want to switch over? By detecting this signal, LIGO has effectively tuned in to a new channel - a completely new way of observing the Universe.

Gravitational waves are so completely different from light, we’re probably only just beginning to understand how they reflect and shape our Universe. For example, a gravitational wave will propagate almost completely unaltered through entire planets, star systems, galaxies....how different is that from the radio waves that your mobile phone picks up - even getting too close to a building can disrupt those signals. Light, or more generally electromagnetic waves are so much more vulnerable to interference than gravitational waves.
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Concerned? No.
This could be as significant as Faraday discovering electromagnetic waves.

Although Faraday received little formal education, he was one of the most influential scientists in history.

It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current that Faraday established the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics.

Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.[SUP][1][/SUP][SUP][2][/SUP]

He similarly discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis.

His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became practical for use in technology.
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Gravity is perhaps the Most Important phenomenon....and least understood...in our universe. Virtually Everything depends upon...and is affected...by gravity. If Gravity and Nuclear Fusion could ever be harnessed, the future would be unlimited in potential.
 
I wish I was blessed with a more 'sciencey' brain because I find this so interesting but I have to really work at understanding it and then getting it to stick. I guess the 'waves' act like ocean waves that reach and then spread around a rock out in the water to pass it by and carry on as a single wave again....sort of right? Except these gravitational waves are spreading around those planets and such and carrying on through space. Warrigal, you sound like you have a 'sciencey' brain! Would that kind of illustrate this new discovery?
 
As far as I remember, gravitational waves are distortions of space itself caused by the movement of very massive objects in space such as neutron stars or black holes. They pass right through matter as if it wasn't there and we don't feel them at all but they do cause some oscillation in structures such as crystal lattices. Scientists have been trying to detect these tiny movements for a long time but have been unsuccessful until now because other movements/vibrations have to be totally eliminated to detect the very small deflections caused by a gravitational wave.

So far astronomers has been studying distant space objects using light waves, later radio waves and each technique reveals different information. Now there is a possibility of another kind of wave that might carry totally different information about the universe and this is what has made them all very excited. Plus it proves Einstein's interpretation of his equations to be correct.
 
I'm so glad there is someone here explaining this. It's really cool to read about. I also love science but haven't the brain for it. I have to kick start the logical part of my brain & that doesn't always work.
 
Alot of interesting info here in this link from Warri

http://www.nature.com/news/einstein-s-gravitational-waves-found-at-last-1.19361

Both black holes that collided had a mass at least 29 times greater than the sun.

The event happened 1.3 BILLION light years away. Talk about a road trip.

The measured event happened at least 600 Million years ago, some estimate 1.8 BILLION years ago.

The waves can go through things or more things than a radio waves.

The actual sound or wave is like a chirp.

The existence of gravitation waves first proved in 1974 when two neutron stars whirled around each other. The waves pattern matched up with Einsteins original theory.
 
This is also the first time that astronomers have found proof that black holes actually exist.
It has long been assumed that they do but now there is evidence.
 
Astronomy is a fascinating science. We are just now beginning to get some idea of the wonders of the Universe. I would sure like to come back in a thousand years, and join the crew of something like Star Trek.
 
On another thread people are arguing about the afterlife.

Usually I have no interest in even thinking about this topic because this life is what I am concerned about
but occasionally I become whimsical and entertain myself trying to picture eternity.

One of my favourite fantasies is that my consciousness is released from the constraints of matter and the laws of physics and I can travel instantaneously to any time and place in the universe. (Yes, I do watch Doctor Who rather a lot) but I am merely an observer. I cannot interact with the material world.

To me, this would be both heaven and hell. So much beauty and wondrous things to gaze upon and yet on this planet so much pain that I cannot do anything about.
This scenario seems to me to be a tiny insight into the experience of any being analogous to that which we call God.
 
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