last Updated December 23, 2016 at 12:00 am
Detectors of the LIGO caught the waves after collision of black holes
Finding confirms what was said by Albert Einstein and opens new phase in astronomy
100 years Ago, and as part of the general theory of relativity, Albert Einstein spoke about how, moving, the objects in the universe and produce ripples in space-time, to spread, as when one throws a stone in the water and this generates a series of waves.
With this, the physicist predicted the existence of gravitational waves , defined as vibrations of space-time.
These waves are generated after cosmic events on a large scale as the explosion of a supernova, the collision between galaxies or merging of black holes. Are, so to speak, the trail after violent events.
At that time, Einstein thought that such waves would be undetectable. However, in February 2016, the Observatory Interferometer Laser Advanced Gravitational Waves (LIGO, for its acronym in English) caught the waves produced by the collision between two supermassive black holes occurred 1,300 million years.
In this way, the scientists of LIGO have confirmed the approaches of Einstein and gave way to a new stage in the exploration of the universe.
this is why prestigious journals such as Science and Nature agreed to appoint this detection of gravitational waves as the breakthrough of the year 2016 .
Thanks to these waves, according to Nature , the scientists will have another tool, and no longer only depend on the electromagnetic waves to study the universe.
"The detection of gravitational waves will allow you to achieve additional information and exclusive about the universe that cannot be obtained by analyzing the light and electromagnetic radiation, the main method of astronomical observations today.
"These waves contain the information specific and direct about the structure (for the variables of mass and gravity) and the dynamics of their origin. This is thanks to the unique property that they possess to pass any subject without dispersing. This does not happen, for example, with the light of the stars, which can be blocked by interstellar dust," said Lela Taliashvili, director of the Space Research Centre of the University of Costa Rica (Cinespa), in earlier statements given to The Nation .
What comes in. Just weeks after the announcement of LIGO, the mission LISA Pathfinder at the European Space Agency (ESA) tested new technologies for future gravitational wave detection over large and distant from those observed by LIGO.
"Now physicists anticipate eagerly what may come after, since gravitational waves promise a whole new way of looking at the cosmos," noted Science .
In this regard, detectors like LIGO are located in Italy, Japan and India would add to this research work.
"Three or more detectors working together should be able to more accurately locate the source of an event in the sky.
"If sources such as merging neutron stars also produce light that can be detected by telescopes conventional, then that approach multi-faceted would allow astrophysicists to do things without precedent as, for example, to probe the properties of matter from a neutron star," said the publication Science .
Latinas among the top 10 scientists of the year. The confirmation of gravitational waves by the LIGO not only was the scientific milestone of the year, but that also positioned the physical argentina Gabriela Gonzalez as one of the 10 top scientists of 2016 by the journal Nature.
González, a researcher at Louisiana State University, coordinated more than 1,000 scientists in the analysis of the data collected by the detectors LIGO.
She was not the only Latin american on the list. The brazilian researcher Celina Turchi, an expert on infectious diseases of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, was recognized for finding the connection between the zika and microcephaly.
msoto@nacion.com
Journalist of Environment
Editor-in the section Global Village. Journalist and graduate of the University of Costa Rica. Writes about environmental issues. Received awards Innovation for Sustainable Development (2011) and Journalism Agriculture and Rural Development (2012).
No comments:
Post a Comment