The announcement of the first detection of gravitational waves, which occurred in February 2016, was historic. For the first time, it was confirmed that these distortions of space-time predicted by Einstein’s relativity theory were a reality. Just recently, on Monday, a historical discovery made with gravitational waves opens a new era in astrophysics.
Gravitational Waves Importance In Astrophysics
Back in 2016, for the first time, it was proven that the modern technology was well refined as it was able to pick up signals as subtle as these gravitational waves and that, therefore, the Universe could now be studied through them, instead of being studied with electromagnetic waves such as X-rays or gamma, as it has always been done, until recently.
Since then, not only that astrophysicist can see the Universe but now they can also “listen” to the Universe.
Thanks to the gravitational waves, the fusion of binary black holes has been detected on four occasions, by now, and it has begun to be glimpsed that they are more abundant than expected.
A Historical Discovery Made With Gravitational Waves Opens A New Era In Astrophysics
On Monday, another important breakthrough occurred as a premier in astrophysics.
Scientists have managed to observe, by detecting gravitational waves, the event of the fusion of neutron stars located in a close galaxy, at only 130 million light-years away from us.
Thanks to this, many discoveries have been made related to very varied aspects, such as the behavior of matter, the generation of heavy atoms in space, the origin of gamma-ray bursts, or the expansion rate of the Universe. This is up to now one of the most observed astrophysical events and inaugurates a new era in astrophysics which during the next decades will be submerged in finding the mysteries of the Universe.
All of these discoveries are summarized in the report regarding the fusion of the neutron stars which has just been published in journals Physical Review Letters and Nature. This historical discovery made with gravitational waves opens a new era in astrophysics and will lead to dozens of more discoveries in the near future.
