Gravitational waves spotted for the first time
Albert Einstein, the great scientist, predicted about a 100 years ago, that gravity exists in wave form in the Universe. He was not able to scientifically prove this thought back then.
But since then, scientists have been trying to find a proof. Is it really true? We all know there are different kinds of energies existing in wave form- we have sound waves, light waves and other waves too. We know that light and sound travel in a wave form. But Gravity?
This is a force that attracts all heavenly bodies to each other. It is a force that keeps planets moving around the sun. It is the force that makes and ends stars. But does Gravity also travel in a wave form?
After 100 years of searching, an international team of scientists has confirmed the existence of Einstein's gravitational waves, marking one of the biggest astrophysical discoveries ever! It's a huge deal, because it not only improves our understanding of how the Universe works, it also opens up a whole new way of studying how the Universe works.
Why haven't we been able to find the existence of waves till now? Well, for one, these waves are very tiny. Even with a massive event like a star exploding, the gravitational waves reaching the earth have been very small. Scientists and physicists (scientists who study Physics) - also did not have the right tools till now.
Photo of one of the pipes within the LIGO observatory
But thanks to LIGO - the laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory - we've finally been able to detect them. The LIGO laboratory works by bouncing lasers back and forth in two 4-km-long pipes, allowing physicists to measure incredibly small changes in spacetime.
We now have the ability to find out what happened in the history of our Universe by studying gravitational waves. And what's most exciting is that there are so many exciting possibilities- we can discover the unknown past of the Universe and we can even possibly invent new gadgets using gravitational waves in the future!
You can also watch a video on the Gravitational waves discovery on Whiz Times by clicking here.
Picture attribution: Wikipedia and NASA under creative commons licence
