Exciting news: Gravitational Waves detected!
Submitted on 11 Feb 2016 16:04:09 UTC
We want to share our excitement about the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves! The event happened right before the beginning of the first observing run of the advanced LIGO detectors, on 14 September 2015. The waves were generated as two black holes merged into a single black hole about 1.3 billion light years from Earth. In astronomy units this is 410 Mpc, approximately 10% of the way across the visible Universe!
Just as exciting: this is also the first-ever observation of binary black holes. In fact, since black holes are black, and emit no light or electromagnetic radiation, this is the only way we can see them.
Did Einstein@Home play any role in this? No, it didn’t. The signal in the instrument lasted only about 1/4 of a second. It’s not a continuous-wave signal like the type that Einstein@Home has been searching for. But since the observing run ended in mid January, we have been preparing the data to start a new low-frequency all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves. We are now starting to run this on Einstein@Home, so please sign up your computers and disable their sleep mode! In the next months we will extend the frequency range of the continuous waves all-sky searches, target interesting point sources and we are also gearing up to perform broader surveys for binary black hole mergers.
Bruce Allen
Director, Einstein@Home
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Copyright © 2024 Einstein@Home. All rights reserved.
Comments
Exciting news: Gravitational Waves detected!
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When will our hosts start receiving work units with derived from the measurements made that (now) include the low-frequency readings?
I've just looked up in the
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I've just looked up in the sky above my house toward where the wave came from. What has seemed some pretty neat concepts for so long are now so real. Awesome ! The amazing ambition has been fulfilled and this means so much more besides, including the future here at our project. Congratulations to all of the scientists around the world that have strived so long for this result, many of whom were young women & men when this enterprise began.
Now E@H will really rock n' roll with the rhythms of the universe ! ~~~~~~~~~~ :-) ;-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Just finished to watch
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Just finished to watch press-conference of MSU part of team.
Marvelous results!
Congratulations to all involved!
Open Access link of the
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Open Access link of the detection paper.
BM
BM
Congratulations to everyone
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Congratulations to everyone involved! I'm looking forward to confirmation of the results by future measurements and to a whole new way of doing astronomy :)
Fun fact: The signal was detected on my birthday ^^
Congratulations to everyone
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Congratulations to everyone involved! Congrats also to all volunteers as a little part of the project.
Прочитал Ñтатьи
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Прочитал Ñтатьи в СМИ нигде нет ÑƒÐ¿Ð¾Ð¼Ð¸Ð½Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ Einstein@home почему так?
Congratulations! Feels
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Congratulations! Feels exciteda and pround to be part of it
RE: Прочитал
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Открытие вÑе же не Ñтим проектом Ñделано непоÑредÑтвенно. Тут другие временнЫе характериÑтики Ñигналов ÑовÑем ÑмотрÑÑ‚. Хоть и Ñ Ñ‚Ð¾Ð³Ð¾ же прибора.
And for us just waking
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And for us just waking up......
Update on LIGO and the search for gravitational waves video
It just a new era in the
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It just a new era in the search is beginning! Keep on crunching!
OMG!!! YESS, the best new in
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OMG!!! YESS, the best new in Radio-astronomy in this century...The general relavity theory has been confirmed!!!
This discovery provides us to know better where we are and what,how,who and why happend ,I´m sure.
This is for you Albert Einstein!!
Huges greetings from Spain!
My computer is signed up, but
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My computer is signed up, but gives Einstein very low priority. Why? Because your units are very large and have very short times to deadline. Too greedy, not allowing other projects to run. I have commented on this before, but my comments were, naturally, ignored. This state of affairs will continue, allowing Einstein to get new work only when other projects have no tasks available. I am not alone in this observation; you should take note.
Einstein is one of the
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Einstein is one of the lightest resource usage projects I know, both for my GPUs and my CPU. I hope they make it more difficult to better utilize my i7-4771.
RE: My computer is signed
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Hello Bob. The nature of the work units themselves are dictated by science requirements ie. in order that results returned will have genuine physical meaning and that our search strategy for the entire set of hosts can proceed efficiently. They cannot take account of an individual's choice of project mix on a given host. In fact you have answered this question for yourself before :
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Amazing engineering and
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Amazing engineering and science.
It's the first of many new starry messages like Sidereus Nuncius was
This is one of the most
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This is one of the most important astronomy discoveries ever! Looking forward to participating in continuous gravitational wave searches here. Expecting many more discoveries to come!
The PR on the BBC in Britain
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The PR on the BBC in Britain was good but sadly there was no mention of Boinc or the great contribution made by so many people who have freely given valuable computing cycles. This in my mind is a missed opertunity to recrute new people who would contribute.
I have created a new team
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I have created a new team challenge in boincStats that starts this sunday to sunday next week, to celebrate this huge new...
THIS IS THE SOUND OF THE
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THIS IS THE SOUND OF THE UNIVERSE!!!!
I get gooseflesh listening this prodigy of nature
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWqhUANNFXw
RE: The PR on the BBC in
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Well let's hope there is some diffusion this way none-the-less. We have Einstein in the name and we do waves ! :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
RE: Did Einstein@Home
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Always good to see you stop by here Bruce........BUT.....you should let me edit so I can sneak in a line like this ...
"Did Einstein@Home play any role in this?
No, it didn’t, BUT maybe it could in the near future so please join us with your new and modern CPU's and GPU's that you like to run 24/7 here and you may even be lucky enough to receive a Einstein Project Certificate"
Thank You All
-Bruce Allen
Director, Einstein@Home
.......ok maybe I spend too much time thinking about gravity,dark matter,and dark energy
This is exciting news and I
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This is exciting news and I am so happy to still be a part of this project! Onwards and upwards!
Physics is for gurls!
I've just remembered a couple
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I've just remembered a couple of other very important implications here. There are several projects for which their further progress is contingent upon the firm confirmation of the existence of gravitational waves :
- the full LISA plan.
- the Einstein Telescope ie. a triangular subterranean interferometer array.
- no doubt others either on drawing boards and/or in the minds of scientists.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
A great day for physics!
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A great day for physics! Gravitational waves and LIGO are getting a lot of media attention. Sadly, no one mentioned Einstein@home, let alone BOINC and there won't be another opportunity like this.
My hope/impression would be
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My hope/impression would be that when the razzle/dazzle settles people will ( correctly ) realise/reflect that there is plenty of low hanging fruit to grab. It was pretty inevitable that the first GW detection would be a high strain event, and only ruddy great black holes colliding at colossal speeds can give that level of interferometer response ie. 10^[-21]. Bear in mind that current sensitivity ( frequency dependent of course ) goes another two magnitudes below that.
While not taking away from other modes of GW analysis, E@H is after a decade of operation a well honed tool for combing through large data sets using a quite clever search strategy. This has been proven already in spadefuls for new discoveries within the EM spectrum and we can now go to superior data sets from the new LIGO instruments ( the sensitivity of which will also get better with time ).
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) Silly me, I've forgotten dear Mr Albert Einstein himself. What a guy ! Another bulls-eye hit ! Even when he's been 'wrong' he has been right eg. cosmological constant, EPR entanglement .... :-))
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
I watched the conference via
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I watched the conference via Youtube and I saw American, British, German and Australian scientists as panel members and in the audience. The Italians and French scientists were holding a conference in Cascina,near Pisa, the site of the Virgo interferometer. But at least one of them could have gone to Washington.
Tullio
RE: Sadly, no one mentioned
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Well - i'm not that sad, i feel extremely privileged to have learnt and understood this event, from those who visit here and explain stuff in the science forums.
To be fair - BOINC/E@H played no direct part in this BUT ... note this LIGO home page has a big button "Get involved" which points straight to E@H home page!
That is E@H kudos, and what E@H finds in the low-frequency all-sky searches may be very exciting and newsworthy. I can't wait!
Bruce was at the press
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Bruce was at the press conference and, along with two other gentlemen, was asked to stand and be identified. The three received a warm round of applause from the audience.
Cheers,
Gary.
RE: I watched the
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I watched as well and saw Giovanni Losurdo (Virgo) see Q&A section
Thanks. Probably I missed him
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Thanks. Probably I missed him because the audio on my Linux host is not working after I updated its SuSE OS to Leap 42.1. I had watched the first part of the conference on the Windows 10 PC via headphones, since it is not connected to my speakers (too far away). My living room is a nest of cables.
Tullio
Of course if you ever wanted
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Of course if you ever wanted to know exactly who is a member of either the LIGO or Virgo collaborations, and where they hail from, then pages 11 through 13 of the paper is a nice alphabetical listing. :-)
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) As far as E@H uptake from this announcement goes : the figures to especially watch on the Server Status page are the registrations of participants and hosts ( quoted per 24 hours ), and with some delay the Computing Capacity figure in TFlops.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Bruce Allen says that the
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Bruce Allen says that the September 14 event was received BEFORE the first observing run of Advanced LIGO. The the discovery was made by "Old LIGO". Is this correct?
Tullio
RE: Bruce Allen says that
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Well spotted! According to this page :
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Maybe he had some refreshment
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Maybe he had some refreshment in Washington DC.
Tullio
RE: Bruce Allen says that
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No. Advanced LIGO was in one of its test runs prior to the official start. If the old instruments would have detected it was covered in the press conference; and the signal was just under their minimum detection threshold.
Tullio wrote:the discovery
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No. It was the new detectors, fully the new Advanced LIGO. But the operation was what the Brits would term commissioning activity (they called it an engineering run in the press conference) before the beginning of the first official science run. In the press conference it was rather carefully stated that they were running fully in the operational mode as used for the recently concluded science run, at the time.
So, I'd say, not "old LIGO" at all.
Could we help to Confirm
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Could we help to Confirm this, like does Einstein@home have the data that its supposedly detected on?
RE: Could we help to
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No and yes. :-)
We have the same data set but we work on a rather different signal type. Our work units are not designed to either originally detect or validate the BH-BH collision waveform.
But fear not ! There will be plenty of glory for everybody to come .... as per Buzz Light Year ( or Es99 ) -> to infinity and beyond ! :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
It might be worth to note
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It might be worth to note that the "O1AS20-100" analysis that's currently being tested on Einstein@Home covers data not only from "O1" ("Observational run #1") but also includes data from the end of "ER8", the "Engineering Run #8", where the event was found in.
This current analysis looks for a different kind of signals than those emitted from colliding black holes. Einstein@Home has been and is currently searching for "continues waves" from "pulsars" or "spinning neutron stars" that, I think, Kip mentioned in the press conference as one source & type of gravitational waves.
As Bruce noted, we are currently evaluating possibilities to run a search for inspiraling compact objects (neutron stars or black holes), but it will take some time to get the computing and data volume requirements down to the possibilities of PCs at home.
BM
BM
RE: As Bruce noted, we are
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Thanks Bernd. That settles it then ! Eight weeks to my birthday, cue ~~~~~~>> New Computing Box of Awesomenessness .... I'll call it the Inspiral King ! :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
There is even already a
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There is even already a thread in Wikipedia!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_wave_observation
LIGO Hanford Observatory
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LIGO Hanford Observatory Richland Washington
Here in the Great Northwest
Gravitational wave signal GW150914, which stands for the words "gravitational wave" followed by the date of its detection, was detected by the LIGO detectors in Hanford, Washington State, and Livingston, Louisiana, USA, at 09:50:45 UTC on 14 September 2015.
RE: On Earth, gravity gives
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The above is all that I need to know to live my life happily. To me personally it doesn't matter what form gravity takes. All I know is that if I drop a 1 Kg weight it will fall pretty smartly to the earth's surface, and if my big toe happens to be in the way it will bloody well hurt! Whether it was a wave or not is irrelevant to my big toe.
So why do I crunch Einstein? Because the scientists here whom I respect tell me that the data we produce is worthwhile, which is good enough for me and my big toe.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
Do you want to get your hands
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Do you want to get your hands on the actual raw GW150914 LIGO data? Get it here: https://losc.ligo.org/events/GW150914
Happy crunching!
Oliver
Einstein@Home Project
RE: Do you want to get your
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Thanks Oliver
They match nicely together.
Apart from the actual
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Apart from the actual detection of the GW, it is exiting how well the data can already be interpreted. Only from this signal we already know (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not an expert;):
- the source of the GW (two colliding black holes)
- the approximate location including the distance
- the actual mass of the two black holes and the new black hole that was formed
- how much energy was send out in the form of gravitational waves (approx. three solar masses)
It's just amazing and I am really looking forward to further analysis and results by the researchers :)
Absolutely right Maximilian.
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Absolutely right Maximilian. This is the cornucopia of hard core science that has been long sought for and goes way beyond who gets what Nobel etc. For some time we will all - including the professional scientists - be trying to drink from a fire hose in our own personal way. There will be only a few craniums on the planet that could hold all the detail in, the Kip Thornes of this world. Hence the collaborative approach. Hopefully you saw from the webcast all the heartfelt hugging etc between the presenters. If you are excited like I am as a bystander, as it were, then imagine how the AEI crew feel. I'd guess and say the last couple of years have dragged a bit for them - the Bart Simpson line 'are we there yet ?' comes to mind - so I am really pleased for them too.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
I have printed the Physical
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I have printed the Physical Review Letters paper. The list of authors is impressive, a thousand names. That of the Higgs boson was even longer. This is really Big Science, for good or bad. A book by Emilio Segre',Nobel Prize winner, which I edited in Milano already remarks this trend. From that crowd, three people, no more, will be chosen to receive a Nobel Prize. I already said that Kip Thorne is certainly one of them, two others will be chosen. But the Nobel Committee is not always fair, as I know from the cases of Giuseppe "Beppo" Occhialini, Tullio Regge and Nicola Cabibbo who were unjustly refused that honor.
Tullio
Using GPUs would be nice and
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Using GPUs would be nice and faster, also if it takes alil longer prolong the report date may be a good idea... just an idea...