Who needs waves? – Sunday Visitor

I have no doubt that the registration of gravitational waves is considered one of the greatest achievements of our decade. And maybe even a century. I am also of the opinion that it will be honored with the Nobel Prize in physics. Part of the prize may go to Polish.

A few days ago the world went round the very interesting news that three different laboratories discovered so. gravitational waves. Disorders that occur in the space under the influence of the moving object with large masses. What heavier objects, the faster they move, the more abnormal the space easier to detect. Easier, but not easy. It’s very subtle effects. Without going too far, however, the technical details, you may want to think about why this discovery is so important?

The universe is the scene of countless disasters and dramatic catastrophe, the natural cycle of life. It’s that for thousands of years in our sky is dominated by the same constellations. In the cosmic scale this time it’s insignificant moment, and even during it were visible explosions of stars. With just the greatest cataclysm – the Big Bang – “hatched” to what today we call the cosmos. This space we study, watching him through a variety of electromagnetic waves, or such. Visible light, infrared or gamma rays. Gravitational waves are a completely different kind of waves. Meadow, mountain, sea look through the eyes, but we can also listen. The eyes do not register sounds and colors ear. These two senses give us completely different information about the world that surrounds us. So far, the cosmos got to know only one sense. From today we have a second, independent of the first. Thanks to him we will be able to “observe” the phenomenon which previously did not have the faintest idea, “look”, where today we have not seen anything. Eg. In the very distant past. After all, the universe is still vibrates in the Big Bang. And maybe in the end “see” dark matter? Something that exists, but something we can not see. Perhaps in the end we will find out which is the vast majority of the mass of the universe?

The registration of gravitational waves is particularly important for us Poles. The international team of researchers, a group headed by Professor Andrzej Królak from the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences was responsible for data analysis. Scientists speculate a little bit not quite, I on the contrary. I think that within a few top ten, the next few years we can have a Nobel Prize in physics.