Scientists Find Gravitational Waves First Predicted By Einstein

[Megalith]

For $1.5 billion, you too can detect a distortion in space that is just 1/1,000 the diameter of a proton.

The idea of gravitational waves started 100 years ago, when Albert Einstein revolutionized physics with a theory of gravity called general relativity — which reimagined the force of gravity as a warping of dimensions of space and time. The theory made a lot of startling predictions. One of them was that very heavy objects such as black holes should produce ripples in space-time itself.

 

[M76]

This is not science

"It's profoundly satisfying that it came out the way that we intended, we'd hoped, we'd dreamed," says Kip Thorne, a gravitational theorist at Caltech who co-founded the project.

That's confirmation bias right there. But I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say it's just very poor use of words. Because I looked at this when they actually announced it a few days ago, and the science looked solid.

 

[Jadawin]

For $1.5 billion, you too can detect a distortion in space that is just 1/1,000 the diameter of a proton.

The ignorance oozing out of this setence is alarming.

 

[Babbster]

This is not science



That's confirmation bias right there. But I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say it's just very poor use of words. Because I looked at this when they actually announced it a few days ago, and the science looked solid.

That's not what confirmation bias is.

All proper science starts with a hypothesis which a scientist expects to either prove or disprove with repeatable experimentation, and there's nothing wrong with a scientist hoping for a particular answer. Certainly, for example, every medical doctor testing a new drug has such hopes. Even more certainly, it would be wrong to fault a scientist for getting super-excited about the most important discovery ever in their field.

 

[Soggy]

This is mildly interesting but ultimately of very very little value. After browsing what information is available , gravitational waves appear to be completely useless other than gathering limited details about one very rare and distant natural phenomenon. It's nice to know Einstein was right, now shelve it and use the money for something useful.

 

[Babbster]

This is mildly interesting but ultimately of very very little value. After browsing what information is available , gravitational waves appear to be completely useless other than gathering limited details about one very rare and distant natural phenomenon. It's nice to know Einstein was right, now shelve it and use the money for something useful.

It's impressive that you can make that determination so quickly!

@M76: See, now the above quote is not science.

 

[Soggy]

It's impressive that you can make that determination so quickly!

@M76: See, now the above quote is not science.

The scientists that i have seen quoted claim that the only thing powerful enough to make gravitational waves is a pair of black holes orbiting each other at near half the speed of light. The experiment has been running for over a decade at a cost of over $1 billion dollars and has to date detected a single 1/5 second "chirp" as 2 black holes merged into one. If there were some practical application even speculated about I wouldn't mind. But every scientist I've found that was asked about application has responded that it has no practical application and never will beyond detecting the rare ripple sent out by huge gravities colliding. The money would have been better spent figuring out how to make socks that will fold themselves.

 

[Raven88]

This is going to be interesting. With as small as the movement is hard to believe it's not in the an error.

 

[Xrave]

This is mildly interesting but ultimately of very very little value. After browsing what information is available , gravitational waves appear to be completely useless other than gathering limited details about one very rare and distant natural phenomenon. It's nice to know Einstein was right, now shelve it and use the money for something useful.

Proof of gravitational wave measurement is is the start of an entirely new area of astronomy. The LIGO detector was built to test the ability to directly measure the waves. Now it has and now that it's proven we can develop instruments designed to actually use these waves for measurements.

The importance of gravitational waves is that the waves don't interact with matter. All the telescopes we have today measure the electromagnetic radiation: visible light, xray, UV, gamma, IR, etc. The problem with these wavelengths is that they lose information and get distorted by things between us and the origin, mainly dust and atmosphere.

Gravitational waves pass through these things with 0 interaction. This means when we use a gravitational wave for a measurement, it is giving us pure information about the phenomenon that created it. It's unparalleled, clean observation of the universe.

The next important part of that statement is the observation of black holes. As everyone knows we can't observe what is happening inside a black hole. Other than Hawking radiation, gravitational waves are about the only thing we can directly measure from a black hole, which are created by the massive gravitational events occurring inside the event horizon. This will basically let us start filling in the blanks for a totally new area of physics that we've never even started to observe.

Before telescopes we were blind to what was happening in space. Once the telescope was invented we were blind to all the other things happening in space that we now see with UV, IR, Xray, gamma telescope (non-visible wavelengths). With each of these tools we have learned vast new info about what the universe actually represents. And now we have added another tool to see something we've always been blind to.

This is going to be interesting. With as small as the movement is hard to believe it's not in the an error.

The data has been analyzed since first observed back in September. Right now the data shows 5.1 sigma for accuracy. The science community requires 5 sigma to firmly state that the data is real. 5 sigma basically means 99.99994% certainty that whatever you're measuring actually occurred, in other words only a 1 in 6 million chance that the signal was fake.

 

[M76]

That's not what confirmation bias is.

All proper science starts with a hypothesis which a scientist expects to either prove or disprove with repeatable experimentation, and there's nothing wrong with a scientist hoping for a particular answer. Certainly, for example, every medical doctor testing a new drug has such hopes. Even more certainly, it would be wrong to fault a scientist for getting super-excited about the most important discovery ever in their field.

It's bad wording. He didn't say "it came out as we expected" or "It came out as we hoped" he said "it came out as we intended"

The word intended is dangerous in this context.

 

[M76]

The scientists that i have seen quoted claim that the only thing powerful enough to make gravitational waves is a pair of black holes orbiting each other at near half the speed of light. The experiment has been running for over a decade at a cost of over $1 billion dollars and has to date detected a single 1/5 second "chirp" as 2 black holes merged into one. If there were some practical application even speculated about I wouldn't mind. But every scientist I've found that was asked about application has responded that it has no practical application and never will beyond detecting the rare ripple sent out by huge gravities colliding. The money would have been better spent figuring out how to make socks that will fold themselves.

You can't put a price tag on science. Science is not an investment. Suggesting that only that science should be allowed that has an immediate practical use, exploitable for monetary gain, is just plain WRONG.

Science is about understanding how things work, and what is the nature of the universe and everything in it.

Fuck this backwards society only caring about money.

 

[pothb]

Eh..... Science is an investment. One does it in the hopes of improving the future. There probably some that do it for the fun of it, but even then, I'm sure they have an investment in it.

 

[M76]

Eh..... Science is an investment. One does it in the hopes of improving the future. There probably some that do it for the fun of it, but even then, I'm sure they have an investment in it.

And who are you again speaking on behalf on all the scientist of the world?

When there is money involved you get cutting corners and you get corruption. Therefore I don't trust anyone doing science in the hopes of getting influence or money from it.

The worst are those science institutions who oppress new ideas, to preserve their authority.

 

[Methadras]

This is going to be interesting. With as small as the movement is hard to believe it's not in the an error.

Oh, just hold on to your shorts because it may just come to that. I find it hard to believe that this wasn't peer reviewed.

 

[otherweeb]

To be honest, at $1.5 billion spent, this is still a very primitive device. Consider: in 1904 radio wave experiments could detect ships up to 3km away. I think most of the 'easy' science has be done. Welcome to the 21st century!