Physicists are now excited with the latest discovery of gravitational waves, that were detected by scientists from the U.S. According to cosmologist Lawrence Krauss from the Arizona State University, he had apparently received an independent confirmation of the existence of gravitational waves, that has been circulating for months from a rumor among the physics community.
This rumor originated from this experiment known as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) involving detectors located in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana in order to search for elusive ripples generated by black holes, that can ultimately change spacetime.
Scientists on the team are currently working on a paper that will describe this gravitational wave signal and if proven to exist, and verified by physicists, this will finally confirm Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity that has been around for 100 years.
Krauss believes that 60 percent of this rumored gravitational wave signal is true, however, he needs to examine first this new data from this work in progress before drawing out any conclusions if this signal is genuine or not.
Researchers on the LIGO experiment will first have to verify and examine carefully this data before sending it to a scientific journal publication and scheduling a press conference. Two years ago, researchers on the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) experiment called for a press conference to announce the discovery of gravitational waves but other scientists believe that this signal was merely caused by space dust.
Krauss says that the LIGO team will go through extremely cautious measures, where he says that they have no reason to claim anything that they are not certain of.
The discovery of gravitational waves is truly important so that astronomers could soon use them for future observations in such a way that has been impossible for current methods. Krauss says that this could serve as a new window to the universe. He adds that gravitational waves comes from the most exotic places in the universe such as edges of black holes during the dawn of time.
Physicists have been almost certain that they exist but they have not been used as a tool to probe further into the universe. Einstein believed that these invisible, cosmic waves are produced during violent collisions in galactic proportions such as two black holes crashing into each other.
When these gravitational waves were emitted and released into deep space, they can compress and even stretch spacetime. LIGO facilities can potentially detect these using laser beams that can measure even the most minute changes, spanning two, four kilometer long pipes.
However, engineers sometimes add synthetic signals to LIGO data in order to test the equipment, mimicking gravitational wave signals. Krauss adds that he still does not know if the rumor is solid and if he still does not hear anything in the next two months, Krauss will conclude this as false.