Space & Astronomy

Gravitational waves announcement imminent

By T.K. Randall
February 9, 2016

Image Credit: (PD) NASA/ESA/ESO/Wolfram Freudling et al via Wikimedia Commons The hunt for gravitational waves - ripples in the fabric of space-time that carry energy across the universe - has been going on for years. First proposed by Albert Einstein as a consequence of his General Theory of Relativity back in 1916, this cosmological phenomenon could tell us a great deal about the universe and help us to better understand everything from black holes to the Big Bang.

Recently rumors have been circulating suggesting that scientists at the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) might have actually detected signs of gravitational waves - something that has never been achieved before.

Now the team have revealed that they are going to be making an announcement this coming Thursday about their findings and it looks as though it is going to be a big one.The LIGO detectors, which are located 3,000km apart in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana, work by measuring how space-time stretches and contracts.

A third detector, which will be coming online later this year in Italy, should make it possible to triangulate the source of a signal if indeed evidence of one has been picked up.

For now though we'll have to wait and see what Thursday's announcement brings.

Update: It's official - gravitational waves have been detected by scientists - story here.

Source: New Scientist

Tags: Gravitational Waves