Gravitational Waves - a highly anticipated 'Update' tomorrow

ack · Feb 11, 2016

This is probably the most fascinating thing I have read yet after the Higg's boson. The NYT's video is also equally exciting for its coverage of the LISA Pathfinder 3-satellite structure in outer space we just started deploying last month (@3:28), for further studies on this - should be much more powerful than LIGO. The amount of precision to manufacture and deploy these things is just awe inspiring. Just imagine those 3 satellites a million miles apart, linked together with laser beams in order to stay in perfect sync.

Ronm1 · Feb 11, 2016

^^ You are right, fascinating tech.

Steve Williams · Feb 11, 2016

ack said:
This is probably the most fascinating thing I have read yet after the Higg's boson. The NYT's video is also equally exciting for its coverage of the LISA Pathfinder 3-satellite structure in outer space we just started deploying last month (@3:28), for further studies on this - should be much more powerful than LIGO. The amount of precision to manufacture and deploy these things is just awe inspiring. Just imagine those 3 satellites a million miles apart, linked together with laser beams in order to stay in perfect sync.

That really is amazing.

ack · Feb 11, 2016

and what a great gift for us, to witness two black holes collide in our lifetime, even as a simple 1/5 second chirp - an event that took place 1.3bn years ago! Imagine if these colliding black holes were the merger of two galaxies - just like that, they became one and we witnessed it. What are the chances! Though, truth be told, there is suspicion that galaxies have many black holes spread around... I thought I read a while ago we are attempting to zero in on one in the Milky Way, far away from the main Sagittarius A*

Steve Williams · Feb 11, 2016

ack said:
and what a great gift for us, to witness two black holes collide in our lifetime, even as a simple 1/5 second chirp - an event that took place 1.3bn years ago! Imagine if these colliding black holes were the merger of two galaxies - just like that, they became one and we witnessed it. What are the chances! Though, truth be told, there is suspicion that galaxies have many black holes spread around... I thought I read a while ago we are attempting to zero in on one in the Milky Way, far away from the main Sagittarius A*

I read that as well but for me it's the black holes at the center of every galaxy that I find the most interesting

andromedaaudio · Feb 12, 2016

jealous .

spazmatron said:
What gets me with these types of experiments and discoveries is that all the while this is going on we still have naked tribes in the rain forest.. Throwing spears and running free through the woods.

Then of course everything in between.

BlueFox · Feb 12, 2016

What was never explained is how they know the detected gravitational waves were caused by two black holes merging.

andromedaaudio · Feb 12, 2016

Great discovery , Einstein respect .

The only flaw is the discovery is a bit late , it happened 1,3 billion years ago

andromedaaudio · Feb 12, 2016

On 18 min in the vid they explain that: before this all happened , they made a computermodel/simulation of 2 black holes merging and what it would look like based on Einsteins predictions /theories .
The signal builds up in amplitude and then settles down , 2 black holes will spin harder and harder around each other , causing a signal with increased ampitude before the amplitude settles down , after they have merged .
The simulation and the real event perfectly matched when overlayed

BlueFox said:
What was never explained is how they know the detected gravitational waves were caused by two black holes merging.

astrotoy · Feb 12, 2016

This has been one of the holy grail experiments in astrophysics - one of the very few experimental confirmations of Einstein's general theory of relativity. I remember back in grad school in the '60's that Joe Weber had created an experimental set up (two locations on the east coast and midwest) to try to detect gravitational waves. Even sent a device on one of the Apollo missions to the moon. Tried to do it for his whole life - never got a true positive result. Unfortunately he died well before this amazing experiment. The experiments have to been incredibly precise and avoid confounding influences, like very minute seismic events that can create false positives. As I remember Weber built huge masses of metal, suspended very delicately with devices that measured displacements in the metal. They, along with the neutrino detectors buried deep in abandoned mine shafts, were the most unconventional astronomical telescopes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Weber

Larry

amirm · Feb 12, 2016

Thanks Larry. I heard his name mentioned in the press conference and now I know why. His battles on his finding of gravitational waves reminds me of the types of arguments we have on audio!

ack · Feb 12, 2016

We applaud every serious scientist who picks a very hard problem to solve, even if they don't solve it, much the same way we applaud all those who fund their honest efforts.

dan31 · Feb 12, 2016

http://arxiv.org/abs/0711.3041

Paper discussing the instrumentation.

dan31 · Feb 12, 2016

http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1411/1411.4547.pdf

Advanced LIGO. Upgraded instruments.

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Gravitational Waves - a highly anticipated 'Update' tomorrow

ack

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