The Nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three scientists who were the first to observe gravitational waves.
The waves were predicted by Albert Einstein as part of his theory of general relativity but their existence was confirmed by the Nobel Laureate team using giant lasers.
Winners Rainer Weiss, Barry C Barish and Kip S Thorne, were three of the thousand-plus researchers who worked on the project.
And you might recognise the name Kip Thorne.
Married to a film producer, he heavily consulted on the film Interstellar, and his own calculations helped the special effects team create realistic visuals of black holes.
What are gravitational waves?
Einstein put forward the theory that gravity wasn’t simply a force, pulling an apple to the ground, but that the space around it is like fabric.
A knock to the fabric will cause waves to flow down it, sort of like when you’re trying to fold a bed sheet with someone and you shake it to try and knock it out of their hands.
Gravitational waves are like a wave in the fabric that seems to slightly stretch the space around it.
How did the Nobel laureates detect them?
Learn more about the 2017 #NobelPrize in Physics via the popular info ”Cosmic chirps” (pdf): https://t.co/tSs58eZ5Xj pic.twitter.com/CLHkegfYgg
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 3, 2017
The team built lasers in North America that travel down something called an interferometer.
Detectors at the end of the lasers’ 8km journey sense whether the path of the laser has varied by minuscule distances (we’re talking subatomic particle level here).
If gravitational waves are at play, the laser light will have travelled a slightly different distance and that variation is detected.
The detector, which they’ve been working on since the 70s, is particularly impressive since it isn’t affected by the background noises of the universe.
Why is their discovery important?
The waves came from a collision between two black holes. It took 1.3 billion years for the waves to arrive at the LIGO detector in the USA. pic.twitter.com/kg6vQbIm7t
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 3, 2017
These scientists were able to confirm a lot of what we thought we know about the universe.
They used their results to detect gravitational waves that indicated two black holes were colliding a billion light years away.
And now, as well as using visible light, infrared and radio waves to observe the universe, astrologists could start trying to detect gravitational waves, too.
That black hole crash was relatively small and extremely far away – so imagine what scientists might start “seeing” in the universe with these kinds of tools?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article