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WSU aide in space-age discovery

A visual of gravitational waves from two converging black holes is depicted on a monitor behind Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory co-founder Kip Thorne as he speaks to members of the media following a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, as it is announced that scientists they have finally detected gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago. The announcement has electrified the world of astronomy, and some have likened the breakthrough to the moment Galileo took up a telescope to look at the planets. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)
A visual of gravitational waves from two converging black holes is depicted on a monitor behind Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory co-founder Kip Thorne as he speaks to members of the media following a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, as it is announced that scientists they have finally detected gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago. The announcement has electrified the world of astronomy, and some have likened the breakthrough to the moment Galileo took up a telescope to look at the planets. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

Professors and graduate students from Washington State University were among more than 1,000 researchers involved in the worldwide effort to detect gravitational waves and confirm Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. The announcement came Thursday that researchers had recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light years away, using massive L-shaped antennae in Hanford and Livingston, Louisiana. They claim to have detected a ripple in space-time that was emitted as the two black holes approached and rapidly circled one another, violently merging into one. On Earth, data from the apocalyptic transformation of mass and energy were converted into a brief soundwave, around the note of middle C/Chad Sokol, SR correspondent. More here.



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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