The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne today. The scientists were awarded ‘for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.’ Let’s have a quick look at 10 things you never knew about gravitational waves:
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne today. The scientists were awarded ‘for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.’ Let’s have a quick look at 7 amazing facts you never knew about gravitational waves:
1. Gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, captured by space detectors can be used to discover when and how some of the universe's largest black holes were born.
2, They are formed around 10 million years after two galaxies collide and their central black holes merge - about 100 times faster than previously thought.
3. On 14 September 2015, the universe’s gravitational waves were observed for the very first time. The waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein a hundred years ago, 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.
4. The signal was recorded on August 14 by the Virgo detector located in Italy, and the two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors located in the US. It is the first joint detection of gravitational waves with the Virgo and LIGO collaborations.
5. The newly produced spinning black hole has about 53 times the mass of our sun, which means that about 3 solar masses were converted into gravitational-wave energy during the merger.
6. Advanced Virgo is the second-generation instrument built and operated by the Virgo collaboration to search for gravitational waves. With the end of observations with the initial Virgo detector in October 2011, the integration of the Advanced Virgo detector began. The Virgo detector joined the LIGO detectors on August 1 this year. The real-time detection on August 14 was triggered with data from all three LIGO and Virgo instruments.
7. To date, the youngest Nobel Laureate in Physics is Lawrence Bragg, who was 25 years old when he was awarded the Nobel Prize together with his father in 1915. Raymond Davis Jr., who was 88 years old when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002, is the oldest.
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 "Albert Einstein, fourth gravitational wave, gravitational waves, Virgo, LIGO, Virgo detector, NASA")
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