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NFT: Gravitational waves detected for the first time

NYerInMA : 2/11/2016 11:04 am
Proving Einstein right (again). This opens up an entirely new kind of astronomy wherein gravitational waves can be used to explore the Universe. Amazing stuff!
Physicists Detect Gravitational Waves, Proving Einstein Right - ( New Window )
HA! Was just going to submit this...  
jcn56 : 2/11/2016 11:05 am : link
was looking for the MIT announcement (linked below).

Heavy stuff...
http://news.mit.edu/2016/ligo-first-detection-gravitational-waves-0211 - ( New Window )
From The Article  
Trainmaster : 2/11/2016 11:13 am : link
Quote:
"... the last waltz of a pair of black holes shockingly larger than astrophysicists had been expecting.

One of them was 36 times as massive as the sun, the other , the other 29. As they approached the end, at half the speed of light, they were circling each other 250 times a second.

And then the ringing stopped as the two holes coalesced into a single black hole, a trapdoor in space with the equivalent mass of 62 suns. All in a fifth of a second, Earth time.

Dr. Weiss said you could reproduce the chirp by running your fingernails across the keys of a piano from the low end to middle C.

Lost in the transformation was three solar masses’ worth of energy, vaporized into gravitational waves in an unseen and barely felt apocalypse. As visible light, that energy would be equivalent to a billion trillion suns.


Really amazing stuff. A shocking amount of energy released. Wow.
Truly over my head  
Mike in Long Beach : 2/11/2016 11:15 am : link
But seems very cool.
lol, a billion trillion suns  
Mike in Long Beach : 2/11/2016 11:16 am : link
Makes the implications of cutting Beatty seem somewhat trivial.
What remains amazing to me  
Bold Ruler : Mod : 2/11/2016 11:25 am : link
is how little we really understand about how the Universe works. Until recently we didn't know that Dark Matter and Dark Energy exist. Not only that, but we've now determined that they make up the bulk of the mass in the Universe and we didn't even know it existed until recently.

I find the gravitational waves evidence really exciting and more proof that we barely grasp and understand how everything works.
When do we get warp drive  
superspynyg : 2/11/2016 11:31 am : link
and photon torpedos?? That's the cool shit!
I hope this is a beginning  
I Love Clams Casino : 2/11/2016 11:33 am : link
to our understanding of a multi dimensional universe that some quantum physics scientists have been trying to prove -

OK, I have no idea what I just said
RE: Truly over my head  
Canton : 2/11/2016 11:37 am : link
In comment 12810514 Mike in Long Beach said:
Quote:
But seems very cool.


This demo station from the press conference will put it all in perspective for you.
Watch "MAJOR Discovery: Scientists announce finding Gravitational Waves confirming Einstein's theory" - ( New Window )
And another that it's it all together in laymen terns.  
Canton : 2/11/2016 11:44 am : link
.
Link - ( New Window )
That puts it all together *  
Canton : 2/11/2016 11:45 am : link
.
RE: When do we get warp drive  
OC2.0 : 2/11/2016 12:00 pm : link
In comment 12810554 superspynyg said:
Quote:
and photon torpedos?? That's the cool shit!


I'll settle for a car on autopilot for now.
ride we must  
idiotsavant : 2/11/2016 12:08 pm : link
In reading about this I kept wondering  
SwirlingEddie : 2/11/2016 12:11 pm : link
how they connected this wave to that particular event?
Just fucking create teleportation and time travel, you pansies  
Anakim : 2/11/2016 12:19 pm : link
But seriously, I don't understand one word of physics
RE: In reading about this I kept wondering  
Canton : 2/11/2016 12:38 pm : link
In comment 12810667 SwirlingEddie said:
Quote:
how they connected this wave to that particular event?


The videos explain how the waves past through earth using "LIGO" to detect it.

It's quite fascinating. This is almost as groundbreaking when Galileo first peered through the telescope, and opened up a whole new world to us, over 400 years ago.
RE: RE: In reading about this I kept wondering  
SwirlingEddie : 2/11/2016 12:43 pm : link
In comment 12810742 Canton said:
Quote:
In comment 12810667 SwirlingEddie said:


Quote:


how they connected this wave to that particular event?



The videos explain how the waves past through earth using "LIGO" to detect it.

It's quite fascinating. This is almost as groundbreaking when Galileo first peered through the telescope, and opened up a whole new world to us, over 400 years ago.


I understand how they detected the gravitational wave. What I didn't get was how they know that wave was formed from that particular event of the two black holes colliding and not some other event. Maybe I missed something in the explanations and videos.
RE: When do we get warp drive  
eli4life : 2/11/2016 1:05 pm : link
In comment 12810554 superspynyg said:
Quote:
and photon torpedos?? That's the cool shit!


But then we'll have the vulcans holding us down for a hundred years
That Einstein guy  
Ira : 2/11/2016 2:07 pm : link
always did seem to know what he was talking about.
RE: RE: RE: In reading about this I kept wondering  
haper : 2/11/2016 2:19 pm : link
In comment 12810754 SwirlingEddie said:
Quote:
In comment 12810742 Canton said:


Quote:


In comment 12810667 SwirlingEddie said:


Quote:


how they connected this wave to that particular event?



The videos explain how the waves past through earth using "LIGO" to detect it.

It's quite fascinating. This is almost as groundbreaking when Galileo first peered through the telescope, and opened up a whole new world to us, over 400 years ago.



I understand how they detected the gravitational wave. What I didn't get was how they know that wave was formed from that particular event of the two black holes colliding and not some other event. Maybe I missed something in the explanations and videos.

I agree, I can understand how the LIGO device works but in theory aren't there more than one event where two black holes collide that would cause gravitational waves? If so this means there are multiple sets of gravitational waves that LIGO could detect, how can you distinguish one from another? Maybe by the strength of the wave, but if they just found these waves in September how did they jump so quickly to the point to read their strength?

Also, one article mentioned physicists were able to 'hear' the two objects collide by listening to the wave patterns. While I do understand there are many 'waves' to detect when two black holes collide, but the collision itself is a singular event. Again, if they only found these waves in September, how did they get luckily enough to hear the singular event of the collision?
Pretty incredible that the program to construct....  
Crispino : 2/11/2016 3:31 pm : link
the observatory to prove this theorem began back in the '70's, given the relative lack of technology at the time. Even more incredible that Einstein predicted the existence of the gravitational waves over 100 years ago.

One MIT professor says in one of the videos that this will drastically change the way we will observe the universe, likening the breakthrough to the increase in the magnitude of our observational ability resulting from Galileo's first pointing a telescope toward the heavens. Just amazing.
Cool  
Patrick : 2/11/2016 3:53 pm : link

This just doesn't sound possible.  
manh george : 2/11/2016 5:11 pm : link

Quote:
the lasers in the present incarnation, known as Advanced LIGO, can detect changes in the length of one of those arms as small as one ten-thousandth the diameter of a proton.


I must be missing something, or the author is.
One thing we know for sure.  
manh george : 2/11/2016 5:17 pm : link
Gravity waves are so weak that they couldn't even hold out a Giant DL.
A little disappointed  
GmanND : 2/11/2016 6:57 pm : link
Thought this might be an off shoot of the plus-size thread...
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