Role of Indian scientists in detection of gravitational waves

Risingbd Desk: In a landmark discovery for studying the cosmos, researchers have for the first time detected gravitational waves, ripples in space and time which were hypothesized a century ago by physicist Albert Einstein.

The announcement was made by scientists from the California Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration at a news conference on Thursday in Washington.

37 Indian scientists participated in the gravitational waves.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the historic detection of gravitational waves, and lauded the role of Indian scientists in the project.

Immensely proud that Indian scientists played an important role in this challenging quest,’’ the Prime Minister tweeted yesterday.

The scientists said they detected gravitational waves coming from two black holes – extraordinarily dense objects whose existence was also foreseen by Einstein – that orbited one another, spiraled inward and smashed together.

They said the waves were the product of a collision between two black holes 30 times as massive as the Sun, located 1.3 billion light years from Earth.

Source: Agencies

risingbd/DHAKA/Feb 12, 2016/SN/Amirul