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Gravitational Waves - Updates today!

Data Holmes

Data Holmes

Admiral
Admiral
http://www.techinsider.io/gravitational-wave-nature-ligo-february-11-2016-2

Gravitational waves may have been detected for the first time, but we won't know for sure until February 11, 2016 — when scientists will either confirm or dispel the rumors, sources close to the matter tell Tech Insider.

Detection of gravitational waves would be unprecedented. Whoever finds them is also likely to pick up a Nobel prize, since the phenomenon would confirm one of the last pieces of Albert Einstein's famous 1915theory of general relativity.
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This could make things get interesting if true.
 
And? Where are your own thoughts? What would you like to discuss?

I get that people want to share news but you guys know that you're supposed to at least add some original content to spark a discussion. This is a discussion forum, not a tumblr where you just drop a link and walk away.

Closed, until at least 11 Feb when we might get a confirmation of the news. If it turns out to be true I'll open it again because people will want to cheer. :p
 
Researchers said the collision occurred 1.3 billion years ago between black holes that were about 29 and 36 times more massive than the sun, respectively. During the crash, about three times the mass of the sun was converted into gravitational waves in less than a second, generating a peak power output of about 50 times that of the entire visible universe, they added. - See more at: http://www.space.com/31900-gravitational-waves-discovery-ligo.html#sthash.OxIvjPJv.dpuf
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This is simply outstanding! So much power was generated and those black holes weren't even particularly that massive relatively speaking.
 
Just saw this on French 24, of all News Outlets. They stated that the discovery opened up a whole new area of study, "Gravitational Astronomy". Gonna dig into this, and try and grok it.

See what we can do, when we put all the nonsense and crappola aside!
 
During the press conference they mentioned two more ground observation stations coming online in the next three years, and a space based one as well.
 
Now that gravitational waves have been proven true can it be said that gravitational waves are in fact what spacd - time really is?

I will be the first one to say it as I always do.

If gravitational waves are in fact the ocean of space-time then like water gravity can be displaced to allow a boat to travel smoothly and elongantly across the surface.

I will also say that gravitional waves have different phases much like the ocean does. Some days a gravitational wave would be also smooth like a sheet of glass. Other times gravitational waves would be like the large 25 foot high swells in a storm.

The question is how does an object travel down one valley of the wave using less energy but in fact gain more velocity?

A lot of new and fascinating things will be discovered.

I will also be the first one to say that the collision between the two black holes could have caused the gravitational wave to impact Earth killing the dinosaurs and causing an evolutional flip.

Gravitational waves from the same collision could have been what flipped planets on their side as well.
 
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Dryson said:
Now that gravitational waves have been proven true can it be said that gravitational waves are in fact what spacd - time really is?

I will be the first one to say it as I always do.

If gravitational waves are in fact the ocean of space-time then like water gravity can be displaced to allow a boat to travel smoothly and elongantly across the surface.
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The waves are made by gravity but aren't actually made of gravity. That would be like throwing a pebble in a pond, seeing the ripples it makes, and then concluding the pond is made of displaced pebbles.
 
Yes. Those who bothered to read know that gravitational waves distort space (and thus time) and not gravity. Being caused by gravity is not the same as being gravity--it's kind of an important distinction.
 
Dryson said:
I will also be the first one to say that the collision between the two black holes could have caused the gravitational wave to impact Earth killing the dinosaurs and causing an evolutional flip.

Gravitational waves from the same collision could have been what flipped planets on their side as well.
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Don't derail the thread with nonsensical tinfoil-hat theories. People would like to discuss the actual scientific discovery here.
If you want to start wild theories about how this affected the dinosaurs, go ahead and do that in the Misc forum, not here.

I'm only asking once. Don't try and derail the thread by making it about one of your crazy theories.

Comments to PM.
 
Here is another article about the discover written today. Funny that Einstein started to doubt the waves even existed. By the 1960s scientist were pretty sure they did exist and in the 1970s they were positive they existed because of scientist work that computed changes in orbits of two colliding stars. Now they have actually detected the waves.

Wow it took 100 years but now we have heard them and know without a shred of doubt. Really cool news.

http://news.yahoo.com/breakthrough-scientists-detect-einstein-predicted-ripples-154314697.html
 
He was pretty sure gravitational waves would not be proven to exist. Awesome day for science!
 
{ Emilia } said:
Don't derail the thread with nonsensical tinfoil-hat theories. People would like to discuss the actual scientific discovery here.
If you want to start wild theories about how this affected the dinosaurs, go ahead and do that in the Misc forum, not here.

I'm only asking once. Don't try and derail the thread by making it about one of your crazy theories.

Comments to PM.
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Don't worry I'll take my nonsensical tinfoil-hat theories directly to LIGO and post the responses that I get.
 
So, it's been mentioned that gravitational waves will enable a new kind of astronomy, additionally to what we have now. While this is true in theory, isn't that still rather far away in practice? It was very difficult to detect even this event so I don't see this method going mainstream soon. Am I off the mark?
 
Count Zero said:
So, it's been mentioned that gravitational waves will enable a new kind of astronomy, additionally to what we have now. While this is true in theory, isn't that still rather far away in practice? It was very difficult to detect even this event so I don't see this method going mainstream soon. Am I off the mark?
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This event sounded like it was a bit of a fluke, being detected in the middle of an equipment test. The one guy in the press conference said the sensors were only calibrated to about a third of their sensitivity.
 
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