Posted on 02/13/2016 5:52:10 AM PST by LibWhacker
So maybe we can’t travel in time but could we conceivably see backwards (maybe even forward) in time?
It’s important to distinguish science from science fiction.
Outstanding! Thanks for posting.
I don’t know about forward in time, but like he says, this will give us a way to look back at the first moments of creation, which no form of electromagnetic radiation could possibly achieve.
I think the most exciting thing, which he kind of downplays actually, is that EVERY time astronomers open a new window on the universe, they discover new, unexpected, mind-blowing things going on out there. What will it be this time? We can’t even guess.
Now we know that the first gravitational waves were detected on September 14, 2015 at 5:51 a.m. EDT (09:51 UTC) at both LIGO sites.
...
I thought I felt a disturbance in the Force.
What I found interesting is that Advanced LIGO saw this gravitational wave almost as soon as observations began with the new and improved instrument. That should indicate that there will be many more announcements of gravitational waves to come as they are verified. Before it’s finished LIGO should have about three times more sensitivity.
I turned 75 that day. It was certainly a disturbance in the Force.
This is definitely one of the most exciting discoveries in my lifetime.
Already it has caused a cosmic shift in my perceptions of reality and my life.
I’m fairly scientific, and I am still failing to see one real practical application of this discovery.
This does not mean that there will be travel in time.
I understand scientifics but not deeply.
Did I just read here that gravity could be nullified (to a certain extent) by high frequency electric current on a metal mesh?
I think that’s kind of a big deal.
Go back and read that section called “Toward a New Astronomy.” It sort of explains what to expect.
But I can sympathize, because at first I was exactly where you are. I mean, it’s not as if we’re going to be able to do any kind of spectroscopy with gravitational waves. And without something like that, gravitational wave “telescopes” are going to be poor cousins to optical, radio, etc. So what information are we going to get? Oh, two things collided over there a billion years ago. Whoopee. :-)
But I’m slowly coming around... This IS exciting.
No, Gilster was just citing an early sci-fi writer, Hugo Gernsback. But there will surely be other things (perhaps not as spectacular as gravity shielding, perhaps more) that come out of this new branch of astronomy.
And still we hear the echoes of God’s arc through the heavens.
What I find totally awe inspiring is the instrument itself - that it’s able to detect changes in length of less than one thousandth the diameter of a proton amid all the hundreds of background noises.
Truly mind boggling.
Einstein daydreamed about stuff like this and look where it got him.
They dont know exactly where these 2 invisible black holes were but know they collided an immeasurably long time ago but with measurable energy outputs? ..and know the wave they detected came from this collision?
School of hard knocks, here. I understand the instrumentation, the fact that gravity waves have always been around, split the laser beam, yadda, yadda, ..Its just like saying that “that wave on this beach was caused by a Chinaman throwing a rock into the sea. But that one over there wasnt.
Im just lookin to understand it all.
Hopefully just bad writing.
Probly just me.
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