“Einstein was right”
Researchers cause a sensation by proving gravitational waves.
An email marked the dawn of a new era in astronomy for Karsten Danzmann and his colleagues. It was sent to the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, of which Danzmann is the director. The email was sent by software that monitors data from two kilometre-long measuring instruments. The contents of the email caused a sensation. The plotted waveforms were the first ever proof of the spectacular prediction that Albert Einstein had made over a century before in his general theory of relativity. Einstein had described what are known as gravitational waves, which are emitted by any accelerated body. The greater the body’s mass, the stronger the gravitational wave. This phenomenon can be observed for example when stars explode at the end of their lifetime. Because the effect is only very small on Earth, it could not previously be measured – until the email proved the opposite. “Einstein was right,” sums up Danzmann. The waves were recorded at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the USA. Max Planck researchers in Karsten Danzmann’s team were also involved in the sensational discovery, which was made public in February 2016. They developed and run highly sensitive detectors that measure gravitational waves and send out a signal. The researchers’ findings could help unravel the mysteries surrounding the origins of the universe.
