{"id":12887,"date":"2016-02-12T11:53:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T16:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=12887"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:27:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:27:28","slug":"gravitational-waves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=12887","title":{"rendered":"Unprecedented information into the origins of the universe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist<\/a>
Artist rendering of two black holes merging. (photo courtesy of NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This week\u2019s landmark discovery about the detection of gravitational waves offers unprecedented information into the origins of the universe, creating a new era in astronomy, said UNC-Chapel Hill gravitational theorist and physics and astronomy<\/a> professor\u00a0Charles Evans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 11, the National Science Foundation held a news conference to announce that scientists from Cal Tech, MIT and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration observed, for the first time, ripples in the fabric of space-time called gravitational waves. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein\u2019s 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window to the cosmos.<\/p>\n

UNC-Chapel Hill physicists reacted with excitement about the announcement, highlighting the importance of this confirmation after so many years. They also credited the fortitude of so many scientists over so many decades who contributed to the discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s spectacular about this discovery is the perseverance by the LIGO team,\u201d said Laura Mersini-Houghton<\/a>, a cosmologist and theoretical physicist and associate professor\u00a0in the College of Arts and Sciences. \u201cThe signal is so tiny that any background noise could drown it out, like weeds blowing in the wind or a bird chirping.<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/a>
Laura Mersini-Houghton (photo by Dan Sears)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSo the team had to control for all these factors for decades without ever seeing anything, so this is really a phenomenal feat of perseverance, technology and patience, and speaks to the faith we all have in Einstein theory of relativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers detected the signal with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) \u2014 twin detectors carefully constructed to detect incredible vibrations that are so tiny, they are a billion times smaller than anything detectable with a seismometer. They then converted it into audio waves and listened to the sound of two black holes spiraling together, then merging into a larger single black hole.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe signal that they observed was just phenomenal,\u201d Evans said. \u201cThere is nothing like detecting gravitational waves directly in the laboratory as opposed to indirectly observing them in an astronomical system \u2013 and detecting them at two different locations just milliseconds apart. \u201d<\/p>\n

For the hundreds of researchers on the project, this signal represents 20 to 30 years of waiting to detect gravitational waves. The signals that make the gravitational wave are generated when huge objects, like stars moving at the velocity of light, smash into each other and make the fabric of space-time ripple.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an extraordinary feat,\u201d said Mersini-Houghton. \u201cNow we can use this information to study black holes and the origins of the universe in ways that we were never able to before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a landmark discovery,\u201d said UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol L. Folt, who is also a scientist. \u201cI want our students to understand the significance of this discovery and appreciate that today\u2019s news, first predicted 100 years ago by Albert Einstein, will drive major advances in research and technology for decades to come. And that is truly extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Thania Benios, Office of Communications and Public Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNC physicists reacted with excitement about the detection of gravitational waves, highlighting the importance of this confirmation after so many years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-sciences-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47605,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12887\/revisions\/47605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}