In 2016, listening to heaven became a reality. Experts from the LIGO collaboration discovered a sixth sense of understanding the Universe and thus marked a new era of observational astrophysics – gravitational waves were discovered.
According to the IANS, the discovery of gravitational waves from merging black holes marked a real clash between science fiction and reality.
The international team of researchers who made their discovery with the laser interferometer of the Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) has already received numerous awards and inspired a new generation of scientists to further study this phenomenon.
By an interesting coincidence, these elusive waves were discovered a century after they were predicted by Albert Einstein. In fact, the phenomenon can be considered not only the most significant discovery in 2016, but also a real breakthrough in general in the history of physics. The 'ripples in the curvature of space and time' will make it possible to obtain that information about the cosmos that was not possible to learn with the help of any telescopes, to look into the history of the early Universe.
Recall that the opening took place on February 11, 2016, when LIGO representatives announced the world's first direct observation of gravitational waves. The waves originated from the merger of two massive black holes 1.3 billion light-years from Earth and were captured by both LIGO detectors.
