Gravitational wave detection may allow us to listen to stars

Washington: As the momentous news of gravitational waves being detected 100 years after Albert Einstein's prediction broke on Thursday, scientists discussing the significance of the major discovery revealed that this discovery would enable us not just to see the stars, but also to listen to them.

Analysis of the gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime suggests they originated from a system of two black holes, each with the mass of about 30 Suns that gravitationally drew closer to each other. The dense objects whipped up to nearly the speed of light before colliding, sending out a stupendous release of gravitational wave energy that eventually reached the Earth, 1.5 billion light years away.

"For this binary black hole system, it made a distinctive, rising 'whoooop!' sound," said one of the researchers Matthew Evans, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI).

"This detection means that the stars are no longer silent. It is not that we just look up and see anymore, like we always have, we actually can listen to the universe now. It's a whole new sense, and humanity did not have this sense until LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) was built," Evans noted.