Research & amp; Science 02/12/2016 13:10:34
The discovery which is already months rumors considered one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs for decades.
ENGINEERINGNET.NL – For the first time in history, scientists have been able to detect gravitational waves
Gravity waves are tiny ripples in spacetime, which predicted almost exactly 100 years ago. were by Albert Einstein. The discovery was presented this week at two press conferences in Washington (United States) and in Cascina (Pisa, Italy).
The gravity waves are detected at 10:51 hours Dutch time on September 14, 2015. The measured waves coming from two relatively massive black holes that revolved around each other in a shrinking job and eventually merged into one larger black hole.
All this took place at about 1 5 billion light-years away from earth. The measurements could be derived much information about the merger.
It has been found that the black hole 30 to 35 times were heavy as the sun and more massive than stellar black holes so far indirectly way in the Milky way have been discovered. Just before the fusion they turned as much as 75 times per second around each other.
The resulting merged black hole has a mass of 62 solar masses. In total, but the mass of the sun no less than three times converted into energy, which is completely emitted in the form of gravitational waves. The whole process took no more than 0.2 seconds; in that period is three thousand times more energy released as the sun generates throughout his life.
Dutch scientists are closely involved in this groundbreaking discovery. As members of the “LIGO Scientific Collaboration – Virgo Collaboration (LVC) have physicists of the National Institute for Subatomic Physics (Nikhef) and VU University Amsterdam, and astronomers at Radboud University (including the Belgian Professor Gijs Nelemans) pivotal contributions delivered to the validation of measurement, data analysis of these gravitational waves, and participated in the astrophysical interpretation.
the gravity wave is almost simultaneously detected by the two detectors of the LIGO observatory in the United States ( laser Interferometry Gravitational-wave Observatory), Livingston (Louisiana) and Hanford (Washington).
it happened at the very beginning of a joint measurement campaign after LIGO for a few years around $ 220 million a radical upgrade had been given, that the detectors had become enormously more sensitive.
LIGO measuring gravitational waves by detecting the unlikely small variations in the travel time of laser beams that are hundreds of times bounced back and forth in kilometer-long vacuum tunnels.
a similar laser interferometer, Virgo known, stands in Cascina in Italy and is currently undergoing an upgrade to a higher sensitivity, where Dutch physicists from Amsterdam Nikhef institute
Later this year, the two LIGO detectors with Virgo work together, and it will be possible to identify many of the origin direction of registered gravitational waves accurate.
Nikhef delivers within the LIGO-Virgo cooperation important contributions both to instrumentation as to data-analysis. Especially software for detecting and modeling of gravitational waves from merging black holes and neutron stars, but also for the quest for continuous gravitational waves, for example, rapidly rotating neutron stars in binary systems.
For the Advanced Virgo detector as an extension of the LVC network will be put into operation this year, Nikhef is responsible for seismic isolation and optical sensors to guarantee the stable operation of the instrument. Furthermore Nikhef plays an important role within the Einstein Telescope project, a future observatory for gravitational waves.
The astronomers of the Dutch Radboud University focus on the astrophysical interpretation and combining gravitational wave information with data from conventional telescopes.
before they develop include the BlackGEM telescope within the Dutch Research School for Astronomy.
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