Picture Credits |
Einstein claimed that matter and energy distort the geometry
of the universe. Just like the way a heavy object could cause a dimple to arise
when placed on a sheet of fabric – producing an effect we call GRAVITY.
Picture Credits |
Now, if two very heavy
objects – and by heavy I mean black holes and neutron stars, not obese teenagers and large built wrestlers – were to orbit around
each other (like a pair of twin star
systems) and therefore accelerate towards each other, their ultimate fusion would result in an enormous amount of
energy being rapidly released. This energy is what propagates outwards into the
matrix of space and time as what we now call GRAVITATIONAL WAVES. According to
the equations physicists have settled on, gravitational waves would compress
space in one direction and stretch it in another as they traveled outward.
A team of
scientists based in Washington State and
Louisiana called LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory)
announced that they had recorded the sound of two black holes colliding.
Thereby, providing evidence to the the last set of Einstein’s theory of
relativity. Honestly, was there ever anything that this man said that would
someday not come true?
Picture Credits |
This
discovery rapidly became the talk of the world, not just the town, and is
being called ‘the scientific highlight of the century’. All of this ‘sounds’
reasonable - right? I mean, of course, where there is a collision there will be
a ‘thud’. Yet, here is the catch - the two black holes are a billion
light-years away from us so how loud could the ‘thud’ have been that we ‘heard’ it on
earth? Also, we all know that sound being a longitudinal wave does not
propagate through a vacuum. Now, the question remains – HOW?
The
answer is simple… taking engineering to the next level.
The
science behind all of this was published in a paper with over a 1000 authors –
some team I must say; I am sure they are glad the alphabetical order is widely
accepted or I would be worried as to how they would decide the order of citing
the authors. The LIGO team consisted of engineers and scientists from all over
the world but what gives me great pride as a student at UoS is that some of the
members belonged to our University – and you can view this as front page news
for now on the University website.
I know
all of you may be immensely eager as young engineers to know some neat details. Yet, I will need some time to write the next series of this article.
So, hold your breaths – or don’t because both space and time are now at the
comprehension of mankind and who knows how far this discovery can take us.
Until
next ‘time’,
Hemanshi
Galaiya
No comments:
Post a Comment