U.S. trio wins physics Nobel for gravitational waves:
- Phenomenon was predicted by Einstein a century ago as part of his theory.
Context
- The 2017 Nobel Physics Prize was divided, one half awarded to Rainer Weiss, the other half jointly to Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne
- They were awarded for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.
Background
- Ripples in the fabric of space-time, first predicted a century ago by Albert Einstein, sparked a revolution in astrophysics when their first detection was announced in early 2016.
- How were the gravitational waves detected?
- Triggered when super-dense black holes merge, the waves were detected using laser beams at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).
- The waves detected by the laureates came from the collision of two black holes some 1.3 billion light years away. A light year is about 9.5 trillion km.
- Einstein was convinced that gravitational waves could never be measured. The laureates used laser devices to measure a change thousands of times smaller than an atomic nucleus.
- Gravitational waves are always created when a mass accelerates, like when an ice-skater pirouettes or a pair of black holes rotates around each other.
