Scientists Confirm Einstein’s Theory of Gravitational Waves

An artist's impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars. US researchers said on Feb. 11 2016 they have detected gravitational waves, which physicist Albert Einstein first described 100 years ago as 'ripples in the fabric of space-time.'

Scientists Confirm Einstein’s Theory of Gravitational Waves

Justin Worland, TIME Magazine

'It's been a very long road but this is just the beginning'

In September, laser facilities in Washington state and Louisiana both recorded the same distortion in space—measured as a short audible chirp—coinciding with the collision of two black holes a billion light years away. The finding suggests that energy from any movement travels across space in waves, leaving slight distortions across anything in its path.

Scientists have confirmed Einstein’s theory of gravitational waves more than a century after the concept was first proposed, researchers announced Thursday.

The discovery has been decades in the making as more than a 1,000 scientists worked on a collaboration known as LIGO, short for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory.

“It’s been a very long road but this is just the beginning,” said LIGO spokesperson Gabriela González at a press conference Thursday. “Now that we know binary black holes are out there, we’ll begin listening to the universe.”