Gravitational waves, a
phenomenon foreseen by Einstein, have been discovered, according
to a joint US and Italian announcement Thursday.
The waves, caused by two black holes, were found by the
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), and
the data also analysed by the part-Italian, part-French VIRGO
project at Cascina near Pisa.
VIRGO is run by the European Gravitational Observatory
(EGO), which was founded and funded by Italy's National
Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the French National
Research Council (CNRS).
The first signal of gravitational waves was created by the
collision of two black holes a billion years ago.
The unprecedented result is doubly surprising, scientists
said, because as well as confirming Einstein's theory of
gravitational waves, it also provides the first direct proof of
the existence of black holes.
The discovery of gravitational waves "is a result that sets
the seal on the theory of general relativity formulated exactly
100 years ago: it's a birthday present for Einstein", said the
president of Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics
(INFN), Ferrando Ferroni.
He said it was "a great discovery, which follows that of
the Higg's boson and which sees the INFN present again. Even
with the great difficulties around us, we manage to find a way
that leads us to the discovery".
Thursday's announcement crowns a technological challenge,
he said, "met on the one hand by the US, Britain and Germany
with LIGO and on the other by Italy and France with VIRGO.
Education, University and Research Minister Stefania
Giannini also hailed the discovery, achieved as it was partly
through Italian expertise, as a fresh success for Italian
physics.
She lauded "all the researchers who, with this fundamental
discovery, will enable us, from now on, to look at the sky with
fresh eyes."
She said that "after the discovery of the Higgs boson, the
international community today celebrates another important
scientific landmark: the first direct confirmation of the
existence of gravitational waves. A perfect gift for the 100
years of Albert Einstein's Theory of General relativity, who was
the first to think of them and describe them in his equations".
Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time - the
four-dimensional concept in which time and space are combined
into one continuum.
Whenever an object moves throughout the universe, it
creates these space-time ripples that move outward.
It is similar to when an object moves through water.
Usually, most gravitational waves are pretty weak, though,
so it has been particularly hard for scientists to measure their
existence up until now.
But LIGO's observatories were designed specifically to pick
up the slightest indications of gravitational waves.
Albert Einstein first put forth the idea of gravitational
waves in his Theory of General Relativity just over a century
ago.
They are the last part of Einstein's theory that have yet
to be proven, though their existence is generally accepted in
the scientific community.
Because of this, researchers have been trying to find
evidence of the waves' existence for many years now.
And at one point previous to Thursday, it looked like they
had been found.
In 2014, researchers working with the BICEP2 telescope near
the South Pole said they had found evidence of gravitational
waves by observing the early universe.
But they later retracted their findings, saying the wave
signals they saw were actually formed by cosmic dust.
After that disappointment, the scientific community was
awash with enthusiasm about Thursday's good news - even though
the LIGO and VIRGO results will still have to stand up to more
scrutiny.
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