Gravity is something we are constantly aware of. It is what keeps us with our two feet on the ground, allows us to walk and run, and the reason why a ball you throw up always comes back down. A hundred years ago, Albert Einstein defined gravity as curvatures in space-time that stretch matter in one direction and compress it in another.
He proposed the existence of gravitational waves, caused by accelerating matter and forming a distortion in space with wavelike properties, which travels at the speed of light. Einstein backed this up with mathematical proof, but because the magnitudes of these waves were so small, it was almost impossible to detect them. His ideas were later used in different applications in our world today, such as improving the accuracy of our GPS systems and cathode ray tubes in old televisions.
Let’s fast forward to September 14, 2015, where a team of scientists from LIGO was able to detect gravitational waves, a feat that even Einstein thought to be impossible.
These distortions in space-time were caused by two massive spiraling black holes (a region in space with very high gravitation, through which even light cannot escape) which happened 1.3 billion years ago, or the equivalent of 1.3 billion light years. Each of these black holes is thirty times bigger than our sun, and when they merge into a single black-hole, they form a massive amount of energy travelling through space.
On that day, it just so happened that this gravitational wave was passing through Earth and LIGO was there to hear it. So yet again, Einstein was right. This is the first measurement of gravitation waves, and furthermore, it proves the existence of black-holes.
What does it have to do with me?
Now you may ask, “Sure, this is very exciting for people in the scientific world. But what does it have to do with me?” According to Edward Teller, an American theoretical physicist, “The science of today is the technology of tomorrow.” As of the present day, we do not know yet what this discovery will produce in the coming years. In fact, lasers and radio waves were also considered to have no practical uses when they were first discovered. We just have to wait and see, just like with lasers and radio waves, what new technology this breakthrough will introduce.
Still, this is pretty exciting: the first detection of gravitation waves caused by two massive black holes colliding! This takes us into a totally new realm of astronomy, as we discover what is out there in the vast universe. It can help us better understand black-holes, measure how fast our universe is expanding, and discover new environments beyond our galaxy. It simply allows us to understand the universe we live in better.
For the past years, we have been depending on light to look at the universe. Now, because of this device, scientists can begin to study events that happened far away from the earth. All of these can have enormous effects on the human race in the coming years.
Scientists also believe that this discovery can lead us to a clearer understanding of the big bang, a phenomenon which is said to have started our universe and, eventually, our existence, and will push back the boundaries of physics as we know it. This discovery will alter our own scientific text books, and can even change history as we know it.
A man of science is someone who will always persist in his search for knowledge and truth—a person all of us should strive to become. This discovery will lead to new contributions in this vast world of human knowledge, which will not only benefit us, but also generations after us. Exciting days are ahead. I am indeed very eager to see what the universe has to offer.
Katherine Anne Bulan
Katherine Anne Bulan graduated with a degree of B.S. Applied Physics from the University of the Philippines, Diliman (2015). She is currently a Data Scientist at Savvysherpa Asia.
