Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 February 11
Explanation: Gravitational radiation has been directly detected. The first-ever detection was made by both facilities of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Washington and Louisiana simultaneously last September. After numerous consistency checks, the resulting 5-sigma discovery was published today. The measured gravitational waves match those expected from two large black holes merging after a death spiral in a distant galaxy, with the resulting new black hole momentarily vibrating in a rapid ringdown. A phenomenon predicted by Einstein, the historic discovery confirms a cornerstone of humanity’s understanding of gravity and basic physics. It is also the most direct detection of black holes ever. The featured illustration depicts the two merging black holes with the signal strength of the two detectors over 0.3 seconds superimposed across the bottom. Expected future detections by Advanced LIGO and other gravitational wave detectors may not only confirm the spectacular nature of this measurement but hold tremendous promise of giving humanity a new way to see and explore our universe.
Black holes are a fantasy. Gravity is most likely a component of electro-magnatism. Do this little experiment some time. Lift a magnet off a wood floor, then stick it to a metal surface and lift it off. Takes a little more force to get it moving on the metal surface than the wood floor no? So how exactly is gravity a stronger force than electro-magnetic forces?
The second video Admin posted …. towards the end where the Russian dude claims they came up with the idea several decades ago …… funny shit – it reminded me of Chekov on Star Trek.
Nice to have proof of what I have felt in the Men’s room at work..definitely felt the shake
My understanding of this is that while gravity waves are hard to detect, now that we’ve successfully done it, we can now improve our detection methods so that “gravy wave telescopes” will be built to enable us to map the universe in a new and exciting way.
For all the bottom-line folks here, essentially this takes us a step further toward “zero-point (or free) energy”
Gravity waves, but it never smiles for a picture.
Nice press release. They obviously need another government grant.
For an alternative opinion from someone not working for grants , check out this guy.
http://milesmathis.com/index.html
section 6
Brian says: Gravity is most likely a component of electro-magnatism.
Then why can’t we measure it with a meter so we can determine its value on another planet or star? How is it that gravity interferes only slightly with light?
And, if light has a source, where does gravity come from? Yes, from other celestial bodies but how do they radiate it?