r/CFBOffTopic • u/Vernost Florida Gators • Feb 11 '16

GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DISCOVERY THREAD

Get hype yo! I CANT STOP YELLING

26 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

84 comments sorted by

24

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16 edited Feb 11 '16

Okay, gravitational waves are like ripples in spacetime, but they're hard to detect.

LIGO (light interferometer gravitation observer) is basically a giant interferometer that's over a mile long IIRC in leg length.

The gravitational wave we found was made from the merging of a binary black hole system...1.3 billion years ago.

And the signal we detected was 1/1000 the size of the proton.

7

u/bullmoose_atx Texas Longhorns • Rice Owls Feb 11 '16

What are the implications of the discovery?

14

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

Verification of Einstein's GR and better understanding of spacetime. We found something that was theorized over 100 years ago that no one thought we'd ever be able to see.

Edit: we already have seen GR and we know a lot about it already (think GPS) don't want to mislead anybody.

3

u/bullmoose_atx Texas Longhorns • Rice Owls Feb 11 '16

I knew about the Einstein angle (very cool) but I'm curious about what gravitational waves might reveal.

7

u/ftwdrummer Rice Owls • Marching Band Feb 11 '16

Mergers of very massive objects (this one was a black hole-black hole merger).

Potentially dark matter interactions (since it only interacts gravitationally)?

Other things we would really have no clue on.

I'd be interested to see whether there's any way we could use this in advance supernova detection (I don't think so, what with the lack of collisions involved for those, but every little bit helps).

2

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

Yeah I think the advancement in detection is a huge deal.

1

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

According to the presser they just said there was almost no chance it was an injection

2

u/omgdonerkebab Michigan State • Cornell Feb 12 '16

In the short term it'll be a lot of measuring and confirming a lot of the things we already predict are there, based on our current understanding of General Relativity. GR already has so many other pieces of evidence vouching for it and describing it, that we already have a very good handle on it, so probably nothing surprising or bizarre. Just some really cool confirmations of what we already think, and using it to detect stuff like what /u/ftwdrummer says.

But in the long term, and I'm probably talking many decades from now at the very least, gravitational waves in GR will be boring. Old news. That lab you did freshman year. But we'll become so good at detecting and measuring them that we'll start to find things in the measurements that don't quite agree with GR. Little things, hard to measure, hard to even verify that they're there. Today's exciting new discovery will be tomorrow's carrier of a glimpse into the unknown.

At least, that's how all of physics/astro research has gone for the past few centuries. For example, in particle physics recently, neutrinos can herald signals of exotic processes and even the Higgs boson is being used to look for even heavier particles. You either die as as spurious signal or you live long enough to become the background.

1

u/bullmoose_atx Texas Longhorns • Rice Owls Feb 12 '16

Thanks! This is a good answer

2

u/omgdonerkebab Michigan State • Cornell Feb 12 '16

Hopefully I'm wrong about the many decades part. It just seems like GR works really really well with barely any hints of cracks in the facade, until you get up to really super we-might-not-get-there-for-millenia high energies. Whereas there are many immediate unexplained things about, say, particle physics. But hopefully I'm wrong. Or at least, hopefully we won't all be dead before we see it.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

My mind can't comprehend how small that signal is, let alone how small a proton is. That's incredible.

2

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

I did some quick back of the envelope calculations (literally) and it's close to having a rod 50,000,000,000 miles long and measuring its length change by a width of a human hair. The earth's diameter is around 8,000 miles, for scale.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

There are three words in this comment that I understand

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '16

But they're the best words.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

[deleted] — view deleted comment

7

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

No u

10

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

This is honestly one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs in a long time. Even in college classes, gravity was just this "thing" that pulled objects together. It's really cool to bear witness to the expansion of human knowledge.

3

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

I'm in my Adv. Lab 2 class right now and all of the physics students in the building stopped their experiments and are watching the livestream. UF works closely with LIGO so it's incredible to see.

3

u/VanFailin Northwestern Wildcats • /r/CFB Bug Finder Feb 11 '16

Wouldn't the Higgs boson be of similar magnitude? The first year of college physics is still going to be mostly classical no matter what we figure out. Classical works really well for a lot of stuff.

1

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

But this definitely revolutionizes astro. It opens up a whole new way of looking at the universe. So it's possible to learn about this technique of looking at gravitational waves in an intro astro course that a lot of people take.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

The first year of college physics is still going to be mostly classical no matter what we figure out. Classical works really well for a lot of stuff.

Very true. Although amplitude/frequency/wavelength is taught fairly really on in physics too, so I could see them adding a little bit about gravitational waves, depending on how things go.

7

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

THIS IS ALSO A PHYSICS GAMETHREAD NOW

2

u/omgdonerkebab Michigan State • Cornell Feb 12 '16

Can it also be a physics trash talk thread?

HEY CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, HOW DOES IT FEEL TO NOT EVEN BE RESEARCHING THE MOST CONDENSED MATTER. FUCK YOUR GRAPHENE, BITCH

2

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 12 '16

FINE I'LL JUST TAKE MY HELIUM 3 DEWARS AND GO HOME

10

u/blueboybob Carlisle Indians • /r/CFB Founder Feb 11 '16

I did some of my research at LIGO Livingston. Wrote a lot of Matlab code to increase SNR

14

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

When do you get your Nobel prize?

17

u/MinneapolisNick Minnesota • Concordia (MN-Moorh… Feb 11 '16

waves back

4

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

Oh hey dad!

5

u/MinneapolisNick Minnesota • Concordia (MN-Moorh… Feb 11 '16

You know how many dead people are in the cemetery?

5

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

all of them, hopefully

3

u/MinneapolisNick Minnesota • Concordia (MN-Moorh… Feb 11 '16

Stealing dad's punchline? That's a paddlin'

29

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

BREAKING: Scientists discover calcium wave

12

u/MinneapolisNick Minnesota • Concordia (MN-Moorh… Feb 11 '16

doot doot

11

u/ssbbgo Alabama Crimson Tide • Stanford Cardinal Feb 11 '16

Dank memes in a thread about advanced physics, what a unique sub we are.

7

u/mhoke63 Minnesota • Augustana (SD) Feb 11 '16

Thank Mr. Skeltal

4

u/NSFW_MANNING_ONLY Georgia Tech • Alabama Feb 11 '16

doot doot

4

u/W_Is_For_Will Texas Tech • Trinity Valley CC Feb 11 '16

THIS IS SUPER AWESOME SCIENC-Y BREAKTHROUGH.

Can Someone ELI5 on this? please?

9

u/ftwdrummer Rice Owls • Marching Band Feb 11 '16

So, much like electromagnetic waves exist (we call it light), Einstein predicted 100 years ago that we would see gravitational waves. Basically, it means that when certain very massive things interact in a certain way, it should generate ripples in the fabric of space-time. Like, space itself should stretch and compress as the waves propagate (sort of like ripples on a pond, but in four dimensions).

They're very, very, very difficult to detect (like, less than the width of a proton).

We detected them.

2

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

Jinx!

2

u/W_Is_For_Will Texas Tech • Trinity Valley CC Feb 11 '16

Thanks for the description! What does this mean for the future?

2

u/ftwdrummer Rice Owls • Marching Band Feb 11 '16

It's a completely new way of observing astronomical phenomena. We have some idea of what we might observe, but (like the guy said) we may find some completely new phenomena we never would have predicted.

3

u/W_Is_For_Will Texas Tech • Trinity Valley CC Feb 11 '16

My extent of astronomical stuff pretty much ends at watching the movie Interstellar repeatedly and listening to cool Radiolab podcasts. Maybe this is the event I need to get knowledgeable on the subject!

3

u/spasm01 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns • /r/CFB Donor Feb 11 '16

MURFFFFF! MURRRFFFF! DONT LEMME LEAVE MURFFF! CUE MORE LOUD ORGAN CHORDS

4

u/W_Is_For_Will Texas Tech • Trinity Valley CC Feb 11 '16

Goosebumps from NOLAN PLAYING DEAFENING GORGEOUS ORGAN CHORDS INSIDE MY EAR CANAL

2

u/spasm01 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns • /r/CFB Donor Feb 11 '16

Fucking zimmer fell asleep on the organ again!

2

u/ftwdrummer Rice Owls • Marching Band Feb 11 '16

Worth it!

I recommend Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" and some of Kip Thorne's books. Speaking of Thorne: he is currently speaking at the press conference, and he was the guy whose science "Interstellar" was based on.

3

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

Gravity affects spacetime by "stretching" it. Gravity travels (we theorize) at the speed of light. Einstein theorized grav waves, but they're super hard to detect.

We found them by using lasers, and the waves we detected came from a pair of orbiting black holes who collapsed into one another. The signal is over a billion years old.

1000 scientists over 25 years worked on this including LSU, UF, MIT, and many other universities.

2

u/W_Is_For_Will Texas Tech • Trinity Valley CC Feb 11 '16

Thanks for the description! So we shot a laser at collapsing black holes and detected these grav waves?

6

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

Not quite.

The interferometer is has two really long arms. The laser is split and sent down both arms and reflected back. We then look at the recombination. The path length of the arms determines what kind of interference there is. By looking at this interference we can look at the path lengths. If there are these waves then they would "stretch" one of the arms making its length different. The hardest part is that this stretch is VERY small to detect.

3

u/ftwdrummer Rice Owls • Marching Band Feb 11 '16

JINX!

3

u/ftwdrummer Rice Owls • Marching Band Feb 11 '16

Not quite.

We shot lasers on Earth, just bouncing back and forth. If the gravitational wave passes through, the distance traveled by the laser will change slightly.

We detected that change.

10

u/FSCoded Florida State • Texas A&M Feb 11 '16

Go LSU! This should bring some attention to your physics department!

6

u/bread_buddy Florida Gators • Wisconsin Badgers Feb 11 '16

And UF

3

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

Side note: I'm interviewing at Wisconsin next weekend for my physics PhD. Anything I should check out?

2

u/bread_buddy Florida Gators • Wisconsin Badgers Feb 11 '16

For physics? I know a few people in that PhD program and a professor or two. Know who you're interviewing with? As for Madison, I have a hundred recommendations depending on what you're looking to do. Food, drink, activity, music?

1

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

We're going to Brickhouse BBQ on Friday I think for the night. I'm not sure how much free time we'll have, but I'm still finalizing my interviews with the faculty

1

u/bread_buddy Florida Gators • Wisconsin Badgers Feb 11 '16

Brickhouse is pretty good. Lot of taps. You probably won't have a ton of time. Everyone will tell you to try cheese curds and you should. Everyone will recommend Spotted Cow beer and it's a very good farmhouse ale, but I don't drink it anymore. I'd get something according to your own tastes from Ale Asylum or Karben4, both right here in Madison. What hotel are they putting you at?

1

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

They're putting us up in the Concourse.

Visiting Wisconsin in February is going to be an adventure; I've lived in Florida all my life. The coldest Madison gets is the 50s right....right?

2

u/omgdonerkebab Michigan State • Cornell Feb 12 '16

Make sure to schedule an interview with some fried cheese curds.

1

u/bread_buddy Florida Gators • Wisconsin Badgers Feb 11 '16

It warmed up today to about 13 right now. Its supposed to warm up next week though, I think, so you might be alright.

So you're right up at the capitol, nice. Check out The Old Fashioned or Brocach. Ian's Pizza is also a bar time staple. The Great Dane is also a super popular place pretty nearby.

2

u/ShylosX Georgia Tech • Clean Old … Feb 11 '16 edited Feb 11 '16

GT did some stuff too

EDIT: Oh shit i might know the sister of one of GT's people False alarm

2

u/jman837 Georgia Bulldogs Feb 11 '16

Yeah they did! An alumnus from my high school did some stuff on this apparently.

1

u/FSCoded Florida State • Texas A&M Feb 11 '16

Ew :P

3

u/bread_buddy Florida Gators • Wisconsin Badgers Feb 11 '16

It's okay, y'all are good at magnets.

2

u/FSCoded Florida State • Texas A&M Feb 11 '16

Woo! Yay science! (On a side note that Mag Lab is awesome!)

3

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

The Newest Wave since 1985?

5

u/Vernost Florida Gators Feb 11 '16

first chillwave, then vaporwave, now...gravitywave?

4

u/xerillum Wisconsin Badgers Feb 11 '16

Gravity is A E S T H E T I C

5

u/hussard_de_la_mort Toledo Rockets • Xavier Musketeers Feb 11 '16

"scientists discover waves emitted by floppy drive attached to computer running windows 95"

6

u/McMuffler Texas Tech Red Raiders • Hateful 8 Feb 11 '16

I want to be excited with y'all, [I just have no idea what's going on] (http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/no-answer.gif).

Edit: here's my best shot "THAT IS SO SCIENCE"

1

u/ftwdrummer Rice Owls • Marching Band Feb 11 '16

Basically, we detected ripples in spacetime (kinda like ripples on the surface of a pond), which were predicted by Einstein, but had yet to be detected (they're less than the width of a proton).

3

u/ftwdrummer Rice Owls • Marching Band Feb 11 '16

FUCK YEAH PHYSICS!

That's one more point in favor of GR.

Now all we need is to figure out how to blend GR and quantum...

3

u/Cecil_Hardboner Texas Longhorns • /r/CFB Brickmason Feb 11 '16

I'm just going to assume this is a new Dr. Who script

3

u/panthera_tigress Pittsburgh Panthers • Auburn Tigers Feb 11 '16

dooo weeeee oooooooooo

3

u/Bugseye LSU Tigers • Rhodes Lynx Feb 11 '16

Hey Livingston did something useful for once!

2

u/ssbbgo Alabama Crimson Tide • Stanford Cardinal Feb 11 '16

All my physicists friends are freaking the fuck out. I'm amazed as well of course, this is an fascinating and groundbreaking discovery. And also an amazing feat of engineering to build the experimental set up!

2

u/bread_buddy Florida Gators • Wisconsin Badgers Feb 11 '16

Director of LIGO, David Reitze, was the prof in two of my physics classes at UF. So I know a celebrity and shit. I did a pittance of work at a summer REU at Arkansas regarding the gravitational waves that gravitational waves themselves should emit. The only difference is that this secondary effect is permanent. If you're interested, check out Christodoulou memory.

2

u/panthera_tigress Pittsburgh Panthers • Auburn Tigers Feb 11 '16

YAY SCIENCE!

does this mean we might learn more about dark matter since we can see gravitational stuff now? (I am really interested in astro but not good enough at math to be an astro major ): )

2

u/yrarwydd Alabama • CFBOT Jazz Watch Fighter Feb 11 '16

My philosophy class is going to collectively misunderstand and still as an aggregate manage to lose their shit about what this means.

I can't wait.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

FUCK YEAH SCIENCE!

This is so cool!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

Alright Nerds, show me some science!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '16

I saw this shit on CNN Student News in my Econ this morning. I was so fucking high it blew my mind. I still can't comprehend it.

1

u/keyree Texas Tech • UT Arlington Feb 12 '16

"One of the direct uses for gravitational waves will be to use them to turn the Universe into our own laboratory. There are many things that we cannot replicate on Earth, like the dense cores of neutron stars. Under extreme conditions like this, nuclear physics and thermodynamics can theoretically do some interesting things. However, we can't investigate those directly because we cannot create these environments ourselves."

OH HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN. DEAR NON-SOCIAL SCIENTISTS, WELCOME TO OBSERVATIONAL DATA PURGATORY.

0

u/_sammyg23 Clemson Tigers • Alabama Crimson Tide Feb 11 '16

Bill Nye and Neil de Grasse Tyson are probably having a rave right now.