On Feb. 11, scientists announced the discovery of gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of space and time produced by the collision of two black holes about 30 times more massive than the sun. This discovery ushers in a new era in human understanding of our place in the universe.
For a brief second as they collided, the black holes produced 50 times the energy of all the stars in the observable universe combined, according to researchers involved in the large international collaboration that uncovered the new findings.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) instruments in Washington and Louisiana caught sight of the build-up to and the moment when the black holes merged into one, which occurred about 1.3 billion years ago. Read more…
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