Major Announcement Concerning Gravitational Waves Has Been Scheduled

Gravity Waves  

100 years after Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, the National Science Foundation gathers scientists from Caltech, MIT and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration to update the scientific community on efforts to detect them.

The National Science Foundation is scheduling a major announcement in a few days with scientists from Caltech, MIT and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration to update the scientific community on efforts to detect gravity waves.

Physicist Lawrence Krauss caused a stir last month when he was among the first to Tweet the findings:

My earlier rumor about LIGO has been confirmed by independent sources. Stay tuned! Gravitational waves may have been discovered!! Exciting.

— Lawrence M. Krauss (@LKrauss1) January 11, 2016

Journalists are now being invited to join the National Science Foundation as it brings together the scientists from Caltech, MIT and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) this Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at the National Press Club for a status report on the effort to detect gravitational waves - or ripples in the fabric of spacetime - using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO).

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This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first publication of Albert Einstein's prediction of the existence of gravitational waves.  In Einstein's theory, space and time are aspects of a single measurable reality called space-time. Matter and energy are two expressions of a single material. You can think of space-time as a fabric; The presence of large amounts of mass or energy distorts space-time – in essence causing the fabric to "warp" – and we observe this warpage as gravity.

Freely falling objects – whether billiard balls, satellites, or beams of starlight – simply follow the most direct path in this curved space-time.

When large masses move suddenly, some of this space-time curvature ripples outward, spreading in much the way as ripples on the surface of an agitated pond. When two dense objects such as neutron stars or black holes orbit each other, space-time is stirred by their motion and  gravitational energy ripples throughout the universe.

With interest in this topic piqued by the centennial of Einstein's work, the group will discuss their ongoing efforts to observe gravitational waves. LIGO, a system of two identical detectors carefully constructed to detect incredibly tiny vibrations from passing gravitational waves, was conceived and built by MIT and Caltech researchers.

Proof of gravitational waves is an important step for science, and could help lead to a Theory of Everything—the harmonization of Relativity and quantum physics.

SOURCE  LIGO

By 33rd Square

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