A wrinkle in space-time confirms Einstein’s gravitation
Astronomers have finally found evidence of gravitational waves. Now things can get interesting.
After 100 years of theory and decades of experiments, astronomers have detected gravitational waves directly for the first time. The announcement, made Thursday by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and accompanied by a paper in Physical Review Letters, describes a powerful signal that ultimately began with the merger of two black holes located 1.3 billion light-years away.
The finding not only confirms yet another aspect of Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity, known as general relativity, but it also opens another avenue for researchers to observe and study the universe.
"We have detected gravitational waves. We did it," said David Reitze, executive director of LIGO, at a conference Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. "I am so pleased to be able to tell you that."
http://discovermagazine.com/bonus/gravity
