Gravitational Waves: Revolutionary Discovery proves Einstein’s Ripples in Spacetime Exist

Decades after the departure of genius theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, scientists said he was right about gravitational waves. Physicists surprised science community on Thursday by announcing that they have successfully detected the ripples in spacetime that Einstein first predicted a century ago.

Gravitational waves have been a trending topic in science community since the German-born mentioned them in his theory of general relativity, but they became talk of the town last year when it was rumored that a team of astrophysicists has detected the waves. The astrophysicist team used the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and discovered a gravitational wave that it believed was generated due to a collision between two black holes far from earth.

About 100 years ago, Einstein mentioned in his General Theory of Relativity that gravitational waves exist in the universe. Since them, scientists were trying to spot these waves, but they tasted success in finding proof about 60 years after the legend physicist’s death.

Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime which propagate as waves, moving outward from the source. When two massive space objects, like black holes, swirls around each other, said Daniel Batcheldor of the Physics and Space Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology. According to the researcher, these objects are behind the changing shape of the universe.

“The (LIGO) instrument looks at the whole universe. We won't see them happen in our own galaxy the Milk Way, but the farther we look, it happens all the time”, Batcheldor continued.

LIGO detected the signal of gravitational waves from the two black holes in space that were colliding with each other. Scientists predict that the discovery could open a new window to unravel hidden secrets of the universe.