The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States has detected gravitational waves for the first time. This is one of the
biggest, and most important astrophysical observations
in the past 100 years.
For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves, arriving at Earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant
universe (merging of black holes).
The power released by the merging black holes was equivalent to 50 times the power of all the stars in the visible universe. In those 20 milliseconds, the energy of the waves was equivalent to annihilating the mass of three Suns.
“We have detected gravitational waves. We did it!” said Daivd Reitze, Executive Director of the LIGO Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, at a press conference announcing the discovery.
"Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time, predicted by Einstein 100 years ago," Szabi Marka, a physicist at Columbia University, told Tech Insider. "They can be created during the birth and collision of black holes, and can reach us from distant galaxies."
He was also noted saying: "Until this moment we had our eyes on the sky and we couldn't hear the
music." "The skies will never be
the same."
"Detecting and measuring gravitational waves is the holy grail of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity," said Professor Bob Bingham, a physicist at the Science and Technology Facilities Council at Harwell Campus in the U.K. "This discovery leads the way to look back in time at the creation of the universe, with significant repercussions for ongoing astronomical research."
