Scientists detect gravitational waves, hypothesised a century ago by Einstein

After four months of analysis, a consortium of scientists— including from India — confirmed Thursday that they had detected a signal from space from 1.3 billion years ago. The signal, which travelled as a gravitational wave was from the fusion of two black holes into a single one — the first time ever that such a phenomenon was observed — and registered as a “çhirp’’ at two highly sensitive detectors, called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory located in Washington and Louisiana. “This is the first time that the universe has spoken to us in the language of gravitational waves,” said David Reitze, Executive Director of the LIGO Project. The discovery is proof that researchers, through gravitational waves, can now observe a new class of astronomical phenomena just as observing x-ray signals from space brought alive pulsar, neutron stars and a host of other unprecedented celestial objects. Gravitational waves are the last, unobserved prediction from Albert Einstein’s iconic general relativity equations that were developed 100 years ago.