gravitational waves won the physics nobel prizeâx80x94here's whygravitational waves won the physics nobel prizeâx80x94here's why - laser distance measuring device

In October 3, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded physicists Rena Weiss, KIPP Thorne and Barry barrisnobel Prize in Physics for their direct exploration of gravitational wave wrinkles in space
Einstein's general theory of relativity predicted time more than a century ago, but it remained elusive until 2015.
Judging from the fanfare announced around the first probe 2016, this is probably the least surprising Nobel Prize in physics since 2013, when physicist Francois Engel and Peter Higgs
For 40 years, people have been thinking about this problem, trying to detect it, sometimes failing in the early days, and then slowly, but definitely bringing technology together to be able to do it, "said Mr. Marie Weiss.
What is very, very exciting is that in the end we are actually detecting things and increasing our understanding of what is happening in the universe through gravitational waves.
Sorne and Barrish of MIT and Caltech played an important role in achieving the most ambitious goals (and expensive)
Experiments in the past few decades: laser interference in gravity-
Wave Observatory
In September 2015, two giant detectors at ligo solar heard a slight chirp sound caused by the collision of two black holes more than a billion years ago.
The forces of this collision distort the structure of space --
Time ripples in it, traveling at the speed of light, and spending billions of years almost subtly changing the distance between the two sets of mirrors in the ligo detector.
This year's award is about a world-shaking discovery, said gerang Hansen, secretary general of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The Nobel Foundation awarded half of the millionaires.
The other half of Weiss and Barish and Thorne won the dollar award because they made a decisive contribution to the LIGO detector and gravitational wave observation.
This is a brief introduction to these cosmic ripples.
What is gravitational wave?
In short, gravitational waves are ripples in spatial structures.
The universe can provide the time when the most violent phenomena occur, such as the explosion of stars, the collision between superparticles.
Or merge black holes.
These cosmic disasters are so energetic, they radiate gravitational waves, and we can directly observe that it is a distortion in the original tough and stiff space structure --time.
Gravitational waves have been scouring the earth, but until recently, the experiment was not sensitive enough to detect them.
Why are they so imperceptible?
When gravitational waves reach us from distant events that produce them, they distort space --
Time is extremely small.
Gravitational waves passing through the Earth will alternately stretch and squeeze space along the two axes, but this distortion is many times smaller than the width of the proton, one of the particles in the atomic nucleus.
For most instruments, it is almost impossible to measure this small length change.
The ripple effect in Einstein's space-time theory finally detected gravitational waves in the merger of two black holes at the end of 2015.
Ripple 1 black hole 2 in a space-time black hole rotates giantsTwo black hole to each other before merging.
The closer they get, the faster they spin.
The energy they spiral and merge to release energy in the form of gravitational waves or space-time ripples.
The result of the merger is a larger black hole, although its quality is smaller than that of the two merged black holes.
The equivalent of multiple solar masses is converted into energy in the form of gravitational waves.
Black hole 136 black hole 229New black hole 62 gravitational wave 3ng STAFFSOURCE: lig yuan in Einstein's space-time theory, in the process of merging the two black holes, gravitational waves were finally observed at the end of 2015.
Before merging, the rotating giantsTwo black hole rotates with each other.
The closer they get, the faster they spin.
The energy they spiral and merge to release energy in the form of gravitational waves or space-time ripples.
Black hole 1 black hole 2 the result of a huge energy merger of ripples in time and space is a larger black hole, although it is smaller than the mass of the two merged black holes.
The equivalent of multiple solar masses is converted into energy in the form of gravitational waves.
[Read more] solar mass black hole 136 black hole 229New black hole 62 gravitational wave 3ng Source: How do LIGOSo scientists detect gravitational waves?
Scientists first observed gravitational waves directly with LIGO,
The wave Observatory, funded by the National Science Foundation. This U. S.
Facilities by two identical L-
Shape detectors in Washington state and Louis Anna state, each using lasers and mirrors to measure minor changes in space
Time generated by gravitational radiation
It is the most sensitive measuring device on Earth, measuring about 2 per arm of L. 5 miles end-to-end.
LIGO's scientific cooperation is also huge, with more than 1,000 scientists.
To detect gravitational waves, the name of the game is a change in distance between mirrors parked at both ends of the vertical position, 2. 5-mile-
Important long arm.
Set a mirror at the tip of each L-
Arms, arms, and an arm at the intersection.
When gravitational waves wash on Earth, they first distort the distance between a pair of mirrors, and then distort the distance between vertical pairs.
The laser bouncing back and forth between mirrors tracks the distance between them, and it is almost impossible to be precise (
Detectors are sensitive to passing trucks, lightning strikes, waves, earthquakes, etc).
To make the signal real, it should appear in both detectors.
So far, LIGO has received at least four of these signals, all of which are the work of colliding with black holes.
It is reported that the fifth is rumored to have been produced by merging neutron stars and is waiting to be announced soon. (
Read more about the tempting rumors and why it completely changed astronomy. )
We have now witnessed the dawn of gravitational wave astronomy, a new area, the Nobel committee said.
This will teach us about the most violent processes in the universe and will lead to new insights into the nature of extreme gravity.
Now, the European gravity observer Virgo probe, similar to LIGO's design, has been launched: in fact, it has also detected the fourth black hole --
The black hole collision found by the Ligo CUCs double detector.
With three such working observatory on the ground, scientists can now identify the sky area where the gravity wave source is located more accurately.
Similar experiments are expected to be launched in Japan and India soon.
Is there any other way to detect them?
Other teams, especially the North American Nano Hertz Gravitational Wave Observatory (NANOGrav)
In Europe and Australia, two similar cooperative agencies are using rotating bodies of stars known as "pulses" (pulsars) to record gravitational waves that pass through once.
Pulsars is one of the most accurate clocks in the universe: these rotating objects send out powerful beams of light that hit the Earth at a regular pace, just as pulsars is a lighthouse.
Astronomers can take advantage of changes in time.
Keep pointing to gravitational radiation, which passes through the array of these dead stars in an obvious way.
Unlike LIGO, pulse timing arrays can detect gravitational waves released by colliding supermassive black holes, or bruisers stirred in the center of galaxies.
In addition, NASA and the European Space Agency are developing a mission called the laser interference space antenna, which will use three detectors in space, millions of miles apart, get these tiny vibrations in space. time.
Who first thought about the concept of gravitational waves?
In 1916, Einstein suggested that gravitational waves could be the natural result of his general theory of relativity.
Although many other scientists accepted his prediction, Einstein did not fully believe that he was right;
Over the next few decades, he has been hesitating about gravitational waves and occasionally published papers to refute his original ideas.
In the 1970 s, scientists observed for the first time a pair of pulses orbiting each other, indirectly detecting gravitational waves.
Using the giant radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the team measured the orbits of two pulses and determined that the pulses were getting closer and closer.
In order to achieve this goal, the system must radiate energy in the form of gravitational waves, an insight that enabled Joe Taylor and Russell hulles to receive 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Of course, the LIGO team detected gravitational waves directly in September 2015, ending a century of speculation and confirming Einstein's original prediction.
Olga Botner of the Nobel committee said the incident caused a stir around the world.
We know that gravitational waves exist indirectly, but this is the first direct observation.
In addition to the facts they prove (once again)
Einstein is right. Why should we care about these things?
Since LIGO first announced the detection of gravitational waves, we have had an unexpected understanding of the universe, that is to say, strangely, huge black holes seem to collide more frequently than we initially thought.
But more importantly, gravitational waves are a new way to look at the universe: We can now detect events that don't leave anything or anything observable like a black hole collision.
It's a bit like seeing the sky in radio waves, infrared and optical wavelengths;
We see something new from all these filters.
Gravitational waves add another pair of glasses.
Most of us expect us to learn exactly what we don't know, says Weiss.
We know black holes in other ways, we know neutron stars, and that's two things that are finally seen.
"But we want to have all sorts of other phenomena that you can see, mainly because of the gravitational waves they send.
This will open up a new science.