in deep space to black holes circled each other,
their mass propagating gravitational waves across the fabric of the
universe at light speed. The two black holes eventually
crashed into one another and merged into one even bigger
black hole, emitting a crescendo of waves. Scientists
have been searching for proof of that collision, and
they just found it. Now it's true. LIGO
, a gravitational wave observatory, has had a few
false alarms, But this time the astronomers are pretty
sure, with a 99.99994% degree of confidence. So
what does this mean? First, it confirms Einstein's
theory of general relativity. Second, now, astrophysicists
can actually use the waves to do science. By
recording the way gravitational waves interact with the physical system
, LIGO will let astronomers probe into the details of
the universe. Scientists can learn what the universe was
like in its infancy, what gravity is like at
its most extreme, and how hyper dense matter behaves
. The map of the universe just got a bit
more detailed. You're welcome, Einstein