Famous academic journal Science Magazine on Dec. 21 declared first observation of a neutron-star merger (Cosmic Convergence) as a ‘Science’s 2017 Breakthrough of the Year’. According to the journal the way the event was spotted, which involved detecting the gravitational waves that the spiraling neutron stars radiated before they merged was especially remarkable.
-Those were detected by physicists from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). It is made up of the Louisiana observatory, in the town of Livingston (USA), and the Hanford center in Washington. Those observatories have two and half mile-long, L-shaped tunnels containing a complicated laser and mirror instrument. The instrument compresses or expands the mirrors at the ends of the tunnels when a gravitational wave strikes the observatory.
-This scientific phenomenon was predicted a century ago under the auspice of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. In October 2017, three LIGO physicists were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics because of their discovery.
-On 17 August 2017 the first observation of a neutron-star merger was detected at LIGO. One hundred and thirty million light-years away, two neutron stars spiraled into each other in a spectacular explosion that was studied by observatories ranging from gamma ray detectors to radio telescopes. The blast confirmed several key astrophysical models, revealed a birthplace of many heavy elements, and tested the general theory of relativity as never before.
-It was the first gravitational wave detection. A ripple in space time is called gravitational wave.
-Following major scientific achievements were listed for voting, out of which one breakthrough was declared winner based on people’ choice:
- A drug for many cancers
- Artificial intelligence masters poker
- Gene therapy success
- Pint-sized neutrino detector
- Fixing tiny mutations
- Cosmic convergence
