After decades of research, in September 2015 the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors measured ripples in the fabric of spacetime. That ripple is known as gravitational waves. They arrived at the Earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. The new detectors had just been brought into operation for their first observing run when the very clear and strong signal was captured.
Back in 1916, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves. These miniscule ripples in the fabric of spacetime are generated by unfathomably powerful events.
In Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space, Janna Levin says that if those ripples and other vibrations could somehow be recorded, we could observe our universe through sound. What might we hear? The hissing of the Big Bang, the songs of collapsing stars, the low rumblings of merging galaxies, the smash of two black holes collapsing into one.
Spacetime takes the concepts of time and three-dimensional space and fuses them together. In classical mechanics – think of Isaac Newton – time is separate from space. In special relativity – think of Einstein – time and space are fused together into a single 4-dimensional “manifold” called spacetime.
Can you really grasp that concept? I think I do, but ask me to explain it and I go blank.
Many things about space and time are at a scale that really is incomprehensible to most of us. Based on the observed signals, the LIGO scientists estimate that the black holes for the event they detected were about 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun. I can’t imagine that. The event took place 1.3 billion years ago. I also can’t imagine that.
For this event, about 3 times the mass of the sun was converted into gravitational waves in a fraction of a second. The peak power output would have been about 50 times that of the whole visible universe. This energy is emitted as a final strong burst of gravitational waves.
This past October, Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne, and Barry Barish won the Nobel Prize in physics for directly detecting gravitational waves.
Weekends in Paradelle 
I like the photo of the labyrinth. Where is it. I have the Land’s End Labyrinth in San Francisco on the cover of my book. The photo is by Ron Henggelen and by going to his website, you can see his incredible photos.
In his “newsletters” section, you can see our book launch which comes at the end of his trip to Sebastopol, Bodega bay and Occidental, CA .
http://www.ronhenggeler.com/ is a great website.
cheers, Bev Riverwood
PS the book is “Stories from the Left Coast: Nevertheless They Persisted.”
LikeLike
What labyrinth are you referring to? None in this post.
LikeLike