Gravitational ripples from "Big Bang" discovered

[natstew]

Big Bang breakthrough announced; gravitational waves detected - CNN.com

Okay, I accept everything back to the "Big Bang", but who kicked the ball?..... so to speak....

What was before the "Big Bang" and who or what caused it?

See.........Science does at least as much to prove a Creator as to disprove a Creator.

Until the circle can be closed, or to put it differently, the equation be finished, a Creator 'God' is the most logical explanation.

 

[waltky]

A laser "ruler" built to measure the traces of gravitational waves...

Giant laser observatory makes progress
12 September 2014 ~ The Advanced Ligo instrument, a laser "ruler" built to measure the traces of gravitational waves, is progressing at amazing speed, scientists say.

The first generation of Ligo, which ran between 2001 and 2010, saw nothing. Over the last four years scientists have designed a more sensitive detector that achieved "full lock" in June this year, earlier than planned. Researchers reported that the new one is already 30% more precise and will start scanning the sky in summer 2015. Ligo (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) operates in two sites in the US, one in Livingston, Louisiana, and another one in Hanford, Washington.

The first generation of Ligo failed to find evidence of gravitational waves

Space ripples

"In June we reached this state that we call 'locking', where the entire system is switched on and behaves for a short time, 10 minutes or so, as predicted it should do in science mode," said Prof Andreas Freise from the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Birmingham during the British Science Festival. Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space and time that propagate across the Universe like sound waves do after an earthquake. But in this case, the sources of the "tremors" are very energetic events such as supernovas (the explosion of a dying star), fast spinning neutron stars (very dense and compact stars), or the collision of black holes and neutron stars orbiting close to each other. With Ligo's current precision, the interferometer should be able to detect gravitational waves coming from neutron star and black hole binary systems 27 megaparsecs (about 88 million light-years) away from us.

Gravitational waves are thought to emerge from energetic events such as the collision of two neutron stars

Researchers are still working on the intricate optical system and detectors within Advanced Ligo to gradually increase the precision. "The target is to reach [a distance of] 200 megaparsecs… which is a factor of 10 better than the old detector," explained Prof Freise. Augmenting the distance by a factor of 10 means that Ligo will scan a volume of space 1,000 times larger than before. "Advanced Ligo will be sensitive to a factor of 1,000 in the volume that we were observing with initial Ligo, and that is the sphere of volume where we expect to see a few gravitational waves," added Prof Alberto Vecchio also from the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Birmingham.

Ligo observatories operate by beaming a high power laser into a splitter that divides the beam into two parts. Each part is then directed towards two 4km tunnels perpendicular to each other. A mirror at the end of the tunnels reflects the rays back into a detector where they are recombined. Since both tunnels are equally long, when the two halves meet in the detector the signal shows no pattern. But this is not the case if a gravitational wave were passing through the Earth. "When [the gravitational waves] reach Earth they distort space and time. In particular, they will change the separation of the mirrors," explained Prof Vecchio. "Over 4km, a decent gravitational wave that we can detect creates a change of less than a thousandth of the size of the nucleus of an atom." This minuscule variation in the space between the mirrors will produce a distinct pattern from which the properties of the gravitational waves can be inferred.

Profound observation

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd hopin' dey'll figure a way to jump around space usin' warp holes...

European Satellite to Test Method to Find Ripples in Space, Time
November 30, 2015 — An experimental satellite slated for launch on Wednesday will test a technique to detect ripples in space and across time, adding a new perspective for viewing and understanding the universe.

From a vantage point 93 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth, the European-built spacecraft, known as LISA Pathfinder, is expected to break ground in the search for the ripples, known as gravitational waves, caused by fast-moving, massive celestial objects such as merging black holes. Black holes are so dense with matter that not even photons of light can escape the powerful gravitational effects. "This will really open up a new window into the universe. God knows what we will learn," said European Space Agency deputy mission scientist Oliver Jennrich.

Earth's thin atmosphere stands out against the blackness of space in this photo shared on Aug. 31, 2015, by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly on board the International Space Station.​

Like light, gravity travels in waves. Unlike light, gravitational waves bend the interwoven fabric of space and time, a phenomenon conceptualized by physicist Albert Einstein a century ago. Before Einstein's general theory of relativity, gravity was seen as a force between two bodies. In the pre-Einstein view of physics, if the sun disappeared one day, people on Earth would feel it instantly. In Einstein's view, the effects would not be felt for eight minutes, the time both light waves and gravitational waves take to travel from the sun to Earth.

'Spectrum of gravitational waves'

So far, attempts to detect gravitational waves using Earth-based detectors have been unsuccessful. Massive objects such as black holes bend space and time more than smaller bodies like the sun, similar to how a bowling ball warps the surface of a trampoline more than a baseball. "There's a whole spectrum of gravitational waves, just like there's a whole spectrum of electromagnetic waves," said astrophysicist Ira Thorpe of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. An operational gravitational wave observatory under development would require three satellites, flying in a triangle formation about 621,000 miles (1 million kilometers) apart. The satellites would contain small metal cubes that would oscillate as a gravitational wave passes through, similar to a buoy rising and falling on the ocean.

Using a laser to measure tiny changes in distance between the cubes, scientists hope to track the subtle flexing of space and time. LISA (Evolved Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) Pathfinder will demonstrate the concept with two metal cubes 15 inches (38 cm) apart inside a single spacecraft. Launch is set for 0415 GMT on Wednesday (11:15 p.m. EST on Tuesday) from the European Space Agency's Kourou, French Guiana launch site. It will need six weeks to reach its intended orbit and another three months to prepare for science operations. The mission, designed to last six months, will cost about 400 million euros ($423 million).

European Satellite to Test Method to Find Ripples in Space, Time

See also:

Satellite Launch to Test Einstein's Idea on Space, Time Delayed
December 01, 2015 — The launch of a European satellite that will test a technique to detect ripples in space that can be caused by merging black holes has been delayed because of a technical problem with its Vega rocket, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Tuesday.

The European-built spacecraft, known as LISA Pathfinder, was due to be launched from French Guiana at 0415 GMT on Wednesday (5:15 a.m. Wednesday in Berlin, 11:15 p.m. Tuesday in Washington). Such delays due to technical issues or poor weather are not unusual. "ESA's LISA Pathfinder spacecraft is in stable and safe conditions and the launcher teams are currently working on this technical issue," ESA said.

This handout image obtained from the European Space Agency on Nov. 29, 2015, shows an artist’s impression of the LISA Pathfinder, designed to test technology for future gravitational-wave observatories in space.​

The teams were to decide Wednesday whether to reset the launch for Thursday. LISA Pathfinder is expected to break ground in the search for the ripples, known as gravitational waves, caused by fast-moving, massive celestial objects. Unlike light, gravitational waves bend the interwoven fabric of space and time, a phenomenon conceptualized by physicist Albert Einstein a century ago.

Satellite Launch to Test Einstein's Idea on Space, Time Delayed

 

[TheOldSchool]

Big Bang breakthrough announced; gravitational waves detected - CNN.com

Okay, I accept everything back to the "Big Bang", but who kicked the ball?..... so to speak....

What was before the "Big Bang" and who or what caused it?

See.........Science does at least as much to prove a Creator as to disprove a Creator.

Until the circle can be closed, or to put it differently, the equation be finished, a Creator 'God' is the most logical explanation.

Zeus.

 

[Steven_R]

What was before the "Big Bang" and who or what caused it?

The question in nonsensical, as in it makes no sense. There is no "before" the Big Bang in any sense that the physics we all know and love today can make heads or tails of. It's like asking what's north of the North Pole. It's not nothing, it's just that you can't go any further north. you simply can't go back before t=0 and have the math work at all.

As far as being a creator or god, maybe, maybe not. Until there is empirical evidence of a creator, it's a non-issue so far as science is concerned. If science is to take God into account, one must first show the existence of God.

 

[IsaacNewton]

Big Bang breakthrough announced; gravitational waves detected - CNN.com

Okay, I accept everything back to the "Big Bang", but who kicked the ball?..... so to speak....

What was before the "Big Bang" and who or what caused it?

See.........Science does at least as much to prove a Creator as to disprove a Creator.

Until the circle can be closed, or to put it differently, the equation be finished, a Creator 'God' is the most logical explanation.

Most logical explanation? How's that?

Your statement is you trying to convince yourself that your religion is worthwhile. Something all people in religion do.

If you do believe what you said, then there is still no way to choose between the thousands of 'deities', which one would get the creator crown. But again your belief system needs YOUR choice to be the one and only so your mind will construct a city of mental scaffolding to support your beliefs.

Mathmatics does allow for something from nothing. And nothing does not mean there was empty space and then boom. It means there was not even empty space. The absolute value of nothing.