Never mind the rumours. A New Scientist investigation finds that the most-sensitive-ever search for gravitational waves may have caught a whiff of its quarry before it even started listening officially.
Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. It tells us that massive objects like black holes and neutron stars warp space-time around themselves, and when two such behemoths collide, the distortions ripple outward at the speed of light. Although we are pretty confident this happens, the waves themselves have never been directly measured.
That may be about to change. For months, rumours of the detection of a gravitational wave signal by LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, have spread on Twitter. With a press conference planned for Thursday, 11 February, they are building to a crescendo.
Beyond the gossip, we have reason to believe this is the real deal. By analysing public observation logs, New Scientist has found that the LIGO team has followed up on at least three sources since they started listening to the sky last September.
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