Space & Astronomy

Gravitational waves detected a second time

By T.K. Randall
June 18, 2016 ·  6 comments

The waves originated from a pair of colliding black holes. Image Credit: NASA / Alain Riazuelo Originally proposed by Albert Einstein as a consequence of his General Theory of Relativity, gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time that carry energy across the universe.

Having been directly detected for the first time ever back in February by a team of researchers at the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), this fascinating deep space phenomenon has now been picked up yet again - this time originating from two black holes colliding at half the speed of light at a distance of 1.4 billion light years away from the Earth."We did it again," said research scientist Salvatore Vitale from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The first event was so beautiful that we almost couldn't believe it."

"Now, the fact of having seen another gravitational wave proves that indeed we are observing a population of binary black holes in the universe."

"We know we'll see many of these frequently enough to make interesting science out of them."


Source: MIT | Comments (6)

Tags: Gravitational Waves