2016 Gravitational Wave Observation
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Overview
The 2016 Gravitational Wave Observation refers to the first direct observation of gravitational waveforms announced by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in mid February 2016. The observation came from a signal received in September 2015 of a binary black hole merger matching predictions from Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.
Background
In 1916, physicist Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves as part of his theory of general relativity, claiming that ripples in the curvature of spacetime travel through the universe away from their origin. In 1974, the first indirect evidence if the waveform was observed in the motion of the star system PSR B1913+16. In August 2002, LIGO began operations to detect gravitational waves, maintaining observatories in Livingston, Louisiana and Richland, Washington. For the next eight years, LIGO failed to observe gravitational waves and was shut down for several years to replace detectors. On February 13th, 2015, several LIGO scientists participated in an "ask me anything" (AMA) thread on the /r/science[1] subreddit. On September 14th, the upgraded detectors received a signal of two black holes merging together approximately 1.3 billion light-years away in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. On January 11th, 2016, theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss tweeted that "gravitational waves may have been discovered" (shown below).[2]
That day, Redditor boilerdam submitted the tweet to /r/Physics.[3] On February 11th, 2016, LIGO officially announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves from the signal.
Notable Developments
Online Reaction
That day, several threads about the observation reached the front page of Reddit, including posts on /r/explainlikeimfive,[4] /r/worldnews,[5] /r/space[6] /r/science[7] and /r/askscience[8] subreddits. Meanwhile, Redditor askLubich posted an animation titlted "How LIGO detected gravitational waves" to /r/educationalgifs (shown below).
On Twitter, United States President Barack Obama congratulated LIGO and the National Science Foundation on the discovery (shown below).[16]
Also on February 11th, PBS Space Time YouTube channel posted a video about the discovery, garnering upwards of 250,000 views and 1,900 comments.
Meanwhile, Xkcd[17] published a comic about the detection titled "Gravitational Waves," which mocked intrusive notifications on social media services (shown below).
News Media Coverage
In the coming days, many news sites reported on the gravitational wave observation, including The New York Times,[9] Ars Technica,[10] USA Today,[11] Wired,[12] The Washington Post,[13] Scientific American[14] and The Atlantic.[15]
Search Interest
External References
[1] Reddit – Science AMA Series
[3] Reddit – Could this be it?
[4] Reddit – Elit5 todays announcement of the discovery
[5] Reddit – Why is todays announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves important, and what are the ramifications?
[6] Reddit – Gravitational waves from black holes detected
[7] Reddit – The collision of two massive black holes has led to the first-ever detection of gravitational waves
[8] Reddit – LIGO makes gravitational wave announcement today
[9] New York Times – Gravitational Waves Detected
[10] Ars Technica – After 100 years scientists are finally closing in on Einstein’s ripples
[11] USA Today – Einstein was right
[12] Wired – LIGOs First-Ever Detection of Gravitational Waves Opens a New Window on the Universe
[13] Washington Post – A brief history of gravity
[14] Scientific American – Gravitational Waves Discovered from Colliding Black Holes
[15] The Atlantic – What Gravitational Waves Sound Like
[17] Xkcd – Gravitational Waves
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