This year marks the 100th year since the great Einstein published hi general theory of relativity, and to mark the centennial year, scientists have found something Einstein predicted as part of the theory: gravitational waves.
"We have detected gravitational waves. We did it," said David Reitze, executive director of LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. The observatory has one goal: to detect gravitatonal waves.
The announcement was made in front at the National Press Club in Washington in the presence of other LIGO researchers and National Science Foundation head France Cordova.
The gravitational waves, defined as ripples in space-time, is said to be created by the merging of two black holes. The gravitational waves described by Reitze is made of one black hole with the mass of 29 suns while the other was the equivalent of 36 suns. Each, however, was perhaps 50 kilometers (30 miles) in diameter, as reported by CNN.
"More than a billion years ago, the two collided at half the speed of light. Gravitational waves pass through everything, so the result traveled through the universe for that time before reaching Earth," CNN states.
The revelation was received with so much excitement by astronomers and physicists. Hearing the recording, because the evidence of gravitational waves is captured in audio form, the would mean that astronomers are now able to hear the official soundtrack of the universe.
"Until this moment, we had our eyes on the sky and we couldn't hear the music," said Columbia University astrophysicist Szabolcs Marka, a member of the discovery team. "The skies will never be the same."
"Einstein would be beaming," said Cordova.
The proof that gravitational waves exist consisted of what scientists called a single chirp. It was played during the news conference Thursday.
"That's the chirp we've been looking for," said Louisiana State University physicist Gabriela Gonzalez, scientific spokeswoman for the LIGO team. Scientists said they hope to have a greatest hits compilation of the universe in a decade or so.
Some physicists said the finding is as big a deal as the 2012 discovery of the subatomic Higgs boson, known as the "God particle." Some said this is bigger.
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