Gravitational waves and what they mean for us
Speaking at a press conference today, a team of LIGO scientists announced that they had observed gravitational waves, created 1.3 billion years ago by a collision between two black holes. These waves were detected on September 14, 2015, just three days after the facility was turned back on after a five-year upgrade.
This was detected using equipment that could identify a distortion in spacetime a thousandth the diameter of one atomic nucleus across a 4km strip of laser beam and mirror.
This confirms Einstein’s predictions from 1916 (literally a century ago), as part of the General Theory of Relativity, and brings us one step closer to The Theory of Everything, explaining all of the known universe.
What this means for us
This opens up a completely new era in Astrophysics. A suitable analogy is to liken this discovery to the discovery of radio waves. Once radio waves were discovered, they revolutionized what we knew of communication and technology. Our entire mobile communications system is based on radio waves today.
It is impossible to imagine the secrets gravitational waves may hold for us. We learn about the observable universe by the light distant celestial objects emit. Gravitional waves may help us learn about the objects in the universe that we cannot see: dark matter, dark energy, black holes, etc.
Already, this discovery has given new insights into binary black holes, how they are formed and also formed a new class of Intermediate Mass Black Holes.
The potential implications of this discovery are enormous. Just a small list of ideas:
- We could see things like colliding black holes, merging neutron stars, gargantuan collisions of galaxies.
- We could actually gather data from gravitational waves to see the BIG BANG itself !!!
And now, going into complete science-fiction:
- Anti-gravity: We could manipulate gravitational waves enough to levitate, or even fly !
- Easier space-travel, as we can manipulate gravity to our liking.
No faster-than-light travel though :(
