Discovery of Gravitational Waves
Published: 15 February 2016
On Thursday 11th February 2016 at a press conference in Washington DC, scientists from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration reported the first ever direct detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two massive black holes more than one billion light years from the Earth
On Thursday 11th February 2016 at a press conference in Washington DC, scientists from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration reported the first ever direct detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two massive black holes more than one billion light years from the Earth.
This remarkable discovery, which confirms a key prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity made 100 years ago, has been widely hailed as the most important scientific breakthrough of the century. Staff and students from the Institute for Gravitational Research in the School of Physics and Astronomy played a key role in this detection, which is reported in a peer-reviewed article published in Physical Review Letters. You can read extensive background on the discovery, and the important contributions made by Glasgow researchers, on the University and IGR websites.
First published: 15 February 2016
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