Detection of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein would open new window on universe
‘There is no other way for humanity to see the origin of the universe,’ says Nasa as scientists schedule highly anticipated press conference for Thursday
The first-ever detection of gravitational waves, which scientists may announce tomorrow, would open a new window on the universe and its most violent phenomena.
Scientists will hold a press conference Thursday to discuss the latest in their hunt for these waves, whose existence Albert Einstein predicted in his theory of general relativity 100 years ago, according to a statement from the National Science Foundation, which has funded the research.
These waves are streaming to you all the time and if you could see them, you could see back to the first one trillionth of a second of the Big Bang
Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) who have been working on the detection of these waves for years will participate.
Press conferences are also simultaneously scheduled at Paris’s National Centre for Science Research (CNRS) and also in London.
The announcement of a press conference revived rumours that have been circulating in the scientific community for months that the LIGO team may have indeed directly detected gravitational waves for the first time.