• 2016 American Election
  • 2016-2017 Trump transition
  • 2017-2021 Trump Presidency
  • about this site
  • AUTUMN IMAGES
  • BIGFOOT/SASQUATCH
  • books of note
  • cinemagic
  • commonplace book
  • cooking for poor poets
  • creepy sci-tech
  • depression
  • Dispatches
  • fictions by S.A. Bort
  • films of note
  • Four Blood Moons
  • FREE JUSTINA !
  • Future Shock
  • global chessboard
  • gratitudes
  • homes and destinations
  • honors of heart, mind and courage from the great OZ
  • let’s dance!
  • liberte!
  • living cheaply with style
  • love & marriage
  • Parkinson Disease Journal
  • people of note
  • po’try by s.a.bort (and others)
  • Readings
  • Scalia cover up?
  • self-improvement
  • songs of note
  • SPRING IMAGES
  • Summer Images
  • TAYLOR CALDWELL
  • TEXAS!
  • the sixties
  • watch your language!
  • WINTER IMAGES
  • word therapy
  • words of note
  • zen of writing

when is a party not a party ?

~ when you're not invited

when is a party not a party ?

Tag Archives: Stuart Gary

Einstein’s ripples in space-time

11 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by essaybee2012 in Albert Einstein, Big Bang, black holes, gravitational waves, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory), ripples in fabric of space-time

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ABC Science, Albert Einstein, Australian International Gravitational Research Centre, BICEP2, Big Bang, black holes, cosmic background microwave radiation, David Blair, David Reitze, France Cordova, Galileo, Genelle Weule, gravational waves, gravity, Hanford Washington, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory), Livingston Louisiana, Milky Way, neutron stars, Physical Review Letters, ripples in fabric of space-time, Stuart Gary, supercomputers, University of Western Australia, US National Science Foundation

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-12/first-direct-evidence-of-gravitational-waves-detected/7140750

Einstein’s gravitational waves directly observed for the first time by LIGO scientists

ABC Science

By Stuart Gary and Genelle Weule

Updated about 2 hours ago

Artists impression of two merging black holes sending gravitational waves ripples through the fabric of spacetime. Photo: Artists impression of two merging black holes sending gravitational waves ripples through the fabric of spacetime. (Swinburne Astronomy Productions/NASA)

ABC Science

  • Einstein’s gravitational waves explained

Tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time known as gravitational waves first proposed by Albert Einstein 100 years ago have been directly observed for the first time, an international team of scientists has announced.

After months of speculation, the scientists from the Advanced LIGO project confirmed they had detected gravitational waves caused by two black holes merging just over a billion years ago.

LIGO executive director David Reitze confirmed to a press conference.

“We have detected gravitational waves, we did it.”

“It took us months of careful checking, rechecking, analysis.

“This is not just about the detection of gravitational waves … what’s really exciting is what comes next.

“I think we’re opening a window on the universe.”

“Like Galileo first pointing his telescope upward, this new view of the sky will deepen our understanding of the cosmos, and lead to unexpected discoveries,” France Cordova, director of the US National Science Foundation, which funded the work, said.

The team’s findings have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time caused by the movement of objects with large amounts of gravity.

In 1915, Einstein predicted that gravitational waves would be produced in extremely violent events such as collisions between black holes or neutron stars.  But they had never been directly observed until now.

LIGO — which stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory — uses a laser split into two separate beams which are sent down a pair of 4-kilometre-long perpendicular pipes.

The beams are reflected back by mirrors and cancel each other out unless a gravitational wave causes the detector to contract and stretch putting the beams out of sync.

On September 14 last year, scientists working at LIGO observatories 3000 kilometres apart in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford Washington simultaneously detected vibrations from two rapidly spinning black holes — one about 29 times the mass of the Sun and the other about 36 times the Sun’s mass — as they spiralled together and merged into a single black hole about 1.3 billion years ago.

The black holes gave out a burst of gravitational waves that travelled through the universe at the speed of light, causing everything in their path to vibrate back and forth.

Signal ‘fits perfectly to gravitational waveforms’

Professor David Blair, director of the Australian International Gravitational Research Centre at the University of Western Australia is one of 56 Australian scientists who are part of the 1000-strong advanced-LIGO team.

He has spent decades working on perfecting the technology that made the discovery possible by the Advanced LIGO project.

“The signal at first seemed too good to be true and for many months mundane explanations were sought,” Professor Blair told RN’s Science Show.

But, he said, the waveforms of black holes are very specific and after extensive analysis all alternative explanations were ruled out.

“The incoming signals fitted perfectly to gravitational waveforms calculated by supercomputers,” he said.

Rumours about the Advanced-LIGO detection first surfaced late last year.

However, doubt remained as three senior engineers at LIGO can send a false or synthetic signal designed to mimic a gravitational wave through the observatory’s systems in order to test the science team.

In March 2014, a separate project called the BICEP2 collaboration claimed they had detected gravitational waves imprinted in the cosmic background microwave radiation — the left over heat from the Big Bang.  This was later found to be artefacts caused by foreground dust in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

RECEIVE INSTANT NOTIFICATIONS OF NEW POSTS

Join 81 other followers

What’s being read now

  • No Wind Blows in Favor of a Ship Without Direction?
  • Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock:" The 800th Lifetime

From newest to earliest

  • The Twelve Days Of Epstein
  • Something Touched Me Deep Inside
  • The last day of Spring / Ten photos
  • Doing the math
  • What five books would you preserve (in case of digital erasure)?

Previous by year

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

Blog Stats

  • 75,982 hits

Blogroll

  • Abe Books
  • AMAC/Association of Mature American Citizens
  • AXS-TV
  • Carter, Sara/Investigative Reporter
  • Catholic Herald
  • diGenova, Joe & Victoria Toensing/Op-Eds
  • Dylan, Bob
  • Film Noir Foundation
  • Gatestone Institute
  • Hanson, Victor Davis/Writer
  • Hemingway, Mollie/The Federalist
  • Hillsdale College/Free online courses
  • Hoover Institution
  • Imprimis/Hillsdale College free periodical
  • Judicial Watch/Tom Fitton
  • KLVZ 810 AM Pop Classics in HD
  • Levin, Mark/Commentator, writer
  • Middle East Forum
  • NeilMed Sinus Rinse
  • Old Farmer's Almanac – Since 1792
  • Premiere Collectibles/signed, just-published books
  • RADIOHEAD
  • Solomon, John/The Hill
  • Souls of Animals
  • Strassel, Kimberley/Wall Street Journal
  • Tea Party
  • Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Database
  • Uncle Sam Cereal – Since 1908
  • Walking Dead
  • Whatfinger
  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 81 other followers

LIKE on FACEBOOK

LIKE on FACEBOOK

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: