LIGO –Science Magazines 2016 Breakthrough of the Year Award Achiever: Gravitational Waves Detector, the Envision of Einstein

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On Dec 22, 2016, the Science Magazines have announced this year's 'Breakthrough award of the Year'. The scientists of Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory won the award for the Gravitational Wave Detection.

The information from Space.com says that, LIGO created the envision of Albert Einstein. Einstein has already foreseen the Gravitational waves in 1915. But a detector to identify the ripples was a far cry at that time.

The discovery of space-time ripples with the collision of two black holes lead the scientists of LIGO for this honor. It was the first ever direct detection of such ripples and LIGO reported this in February 11, 2016. The discovery was based on the theory of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was developed from his Special Relativity theory, which he proposed in 1905. The special Relativity theory changed the so far believed the concept of space and time.

In 1915, Einstein in his General Relativity theory explained that, the gravitational force which we feel is due to the distortion of massive objects in space-time. The massive bodies bend with the space and time and which causes gravity.

Science/AAAS gives the information that, interferometers, an L-shaped optical instruments was used by Rainer Weiss, a physicist in Cambridge in 1972 to detect the gravitational force created by black holes. And this paved the way to the birth of LIGO.

The Gravitational waves changes created in the space are relatively small and it need precise devices to detect it. LIGO was successful in creating the most precise detecting device till date.

Such innovative discovery has paved way for many new scientific fields. The Science reporter Adrian Cho in the article in Science/AAAS has written about the scope for gravitational Wave astronomy, which is entirely a new field.

With this discovery LIGO acquired many achievements. The Breakthrough Prize Foundation has awarded LIGO a special prize of $3 million in Fundamental Physics. LIGO has also been honored by other magazines too. The yearly list of '10 people who mattered in science' in the journal nature has listed the name of Gabriela Gonzelaz, spokesperson of LIGO in its 2016 list.

Here is a video introducing the team of Scientists who made such great discovery by Smithsonian Magazine.