Danny Faulkner on Gravity Waves
“Gravity waves are a part of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Einstein had predicted the existence of gravity waves a century ago. Over the years, the predictions of general relativity have been tested repeatedly, and it is one of the best-supported theories in the history of science. LIGO consists of twin systems, one near Livingston, Louisiana, and the other on the Hanford Site in the State of Washington. LIGO detectors picked up the same signal in an event that lasted about a quarter of a second. The only difference in the two detections was that they were seven milliseconds apart in time. The time delay helped determine the direction in space where the ripple came from. (Note: this is due to the gravity waves traveling at the speed of light between the LIGO receivers). Additional information gleaned from the data yielded a redshift for the waves that correspond to a distance of about 1.3 billion light-years for the black hole merger. As an astronomer