![]() ![]() A group of physicists studying the publicly-released data that LIGO has collected so far, claims to have uncovered wave “echoes that could contradict general relativity’s predictions. LIGOĭecades in the making, the discovery was heralded as the ultimate confirmation of Einstein’s theory, but in an ironic twist, they may also be its undoing. These waves are disturbances in the very fabric of space and time, caused by the motion of massive objects - namely two colliding black holes.Īn illustration depicting LIGO's laser interferometer setup. Gravitational waves are essentially ripples on a galactic pond. ![]() But it wasn’t until 2015 that the first gravitational waves were detected. Many of Einstein’s predictions have been verified throughout the decades since Einstein first shared them with the world. And massive objects curve space-time, which is what we know as gravity. Through general relativity, Einstein explained that space and time are not two separate entities, but an interwoven fabric called space-time. ![]() ![]() However, these incredible findings could also highlight the theory’s shortcoming and introduce us to new, exotic physics.Įinstein first drafted his theory of general relativity in 1915, and its new outlook on gravity ultimately replaced Newton’s theory. Albert Einstein was probably partying in his grave at the news, as it confirmed the theory of general relativity he drafted a century ago. The discovery of gravitational waves made by the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) observatories is undoubtedly the science discovery of the year. ![]()
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