I was starting my brainstorming about today's topic, when I saw on my facebook feed (yea i still open facebook every now and then - Steemit on the other hand is always on :D) , so I saw today's breaking news about the detection of gravitational waves for the 4th time.
So earlier today, LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the VIRGO Collaboration announced that on the 14th of August at 10:30:43 UTC, 2 black holes, with respective masses of 30.5 and 25.3 times that of the sun, and that are located at 1.7 billion light years away, merged causing gravitational waves that were successfully detected by not one, but three observatories.
This merger created a new black hole, the mass of which is 53 times that of our sun, where 3 sun masses got converted into energy during the merger. The event was called GW170814 (Gravitational Waves 14 August 2017)
Prior detections were relying on 2 operational observatories - both LIGO detectors (with one located in Livingston - LA and the other in Hanford - WA), yet this is the first time all three observatories detect the same event together as a network, with the addition of the VIRGO detector located near Pisa, Italy. VIRGO started full operation as of August 1st.
France Córdova, NSF director, commented on the detection:
[Today marks] the first time a gravitational-wave detection was observed by these observatories, located thousands of miles apart. This is an exciting milestone in the growing international scientific effort to unlock the extraordinary mysteries of our Universe.
Fred Raab, LIGO associate director for observatory operations, commented on the event:
As we increase the number of observatories in the international gravitational wave network, we not only improve the source location, but we also recover improved polarization information that provides better information on the orientation of the orbiting objects as well as enabling new tests of Einstein’s theory
What are gravitational waves?
As defined in wikipedia:
Gravitational waves are ripples in the curvature of spacetime that are generated in certain gravitational interactions and propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light.
They are the result of black hole mergers.
What are LIGO and VIRGO?
Those detectors are what is referred to as Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatories, whose purpose is to actually detect gravitational waves and hence collisions of black holes.
Why is this big news?
As highlighted above, the increase in accuracy and the concurrent detection via the LIGO-VIRGO network is a great means to allow further exploration of such events, and more importantly a test of Einstein's general relativity theory.
The more we detect and learn about gravitational waves and black hole mergers, the more we learn about our universe.
For more information on the event, the press release, the paper and readings about the topic, please check out the references below.
Feel free to also check out this wonderful video about "Atomic interferometry"
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Atomic_Interferometry.ogv
Thank you for stopping by!
References:
- http://www.iflscience.com/space/gravitational-waves-from-black-hole-merger-have-been-detected-with-three-detectors-for-the-first-time/
- https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-P170814/public/main
- http://www.ligo.org/detections/GW170814/press-release/pr-english.pdf
- http://www.virgo-gw.eu/
- https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/
- https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20170927
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_wave
Photo Credits:
Prior Posts:
If you enjoyed this post, you might want to check out my earlier posts from the "Misconceptions" series:
- Misconception #8: Caesarian C-Section Is Named After Julius Caesar
- Misconception #7: Nero Set Rome On Fire And Watched It Burn
- Misconception #6: Low Voltage Shocks Are Not Dangerous
- Misconception #5: Mount Everest is the Tallest on Earth
- Misconception #4: Ducks Quack Doesn't Echo
- Misconception #3: Ostriches Bury their Head in Sand When Scared
- Misconception #2: Water is a Good Conductor of Electricity
- Misconception #1: Humans Only Have 5 Senses
My posts aim to be contribute to the following projects:
- #steemSTEM / @steemstem - A project to increase both the quality as well as visibility of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (and Health).
- #steemiteducation / @steemiteducation - A project to promote high quality educational posts on Steemit.