Science finally catches up to Einstein

The famous scientist may have been on to something.

In what may be the largest leap in physics this century, scientists believe they discovered Albert Einstein's gravitational waves.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Einstein predicted that gravity is not constant. He believed it traveled in waves that appear as ripples in a pond.

The larger the object, the greater the ripple, the further the warp in spacetime.

The idea is simple enough, but proving the theory was not so easy.

Even Einstein believed the theory would never move beyond its existence as a simple hypothesis, but scientists kept searching.

Now, for the first time in history, Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) scientists believe they have finally detected Einstein's gravitational waves.

The waves were detected on September 14 last year at 5:51 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time by each of the twin LIGO detectors in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington.

LIGO scientists believe the waves were produced following "the merger of two black holes" that created a single, larger, black hole.

The signals lead LIGO scientists to believe the holes were 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun. 

David H. Reitze, the executive director of the LIGO laboratory explained, "Our observation of gravitational waves accomplishes an ambitious goal set out over 5 decades ago to directly detect this elusive phenomenon and better understand the universe, and, fittingly, fulfills Einstein's legacy on the 100th anniversary of his general theory of relativity."

All LIGO research is conducted by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), which is a group of over 1,000 scientists from universities across America and 14 from other countries.

Gabriela González, LSC spokeswoman and professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University, described that "This detection is the beginning of a new era: The field of gravitational wave astronomy is now a reality." 

Kip Thorne, Caltech's professor of Theoretical Physics, enthusiastically explained, "With this discovery, we humans are embarking on a marvelous new quest: the quest to explore the warped side of the universe-objects and phenomena that are made from warped spacetime."

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