Nobel Physics Prize Awarded to 3 Scientists for Proving Einstein’s ‘Gravitational Waves’ Theory

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics went to three scientists for their discoveries on gravitational waves that were theorized by Einstein a hundred years ago. (Getty Images)
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics went to three scientists for their discoveries on gravitational waves that were theorized by Einstein a hundred years ago. (Getty Images)
TT
20

Nobel Physics Prize Awarded to 3 Scientists for Proving Einstein’s ‘Gravitational Waves’ Theory

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics went to three scientists for their discoveries on gravitational waves that were theorized by Einstein a hundred years ago. (Getty Images)
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics went to three scientists for their discoveries on gravitational waves that were theorized by Einstein a hundred years ago. (Getty Images)

Three scientists, whose discoveries on gravitational waves, have been awarded the 2017 Nobel Physics Prize.

Rainer Weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Barry Barish and Kip Thorne of the California Institute of Technology are the recipients of the award, announced by Sweden's Royal Academy of Sciences on Tuesday.

Their discoveries in faint ripples flying through the universe called gravitational waves came as proof of a theory developed by Albert Einstein a century ago. Scientists say this fundamentally alters our understanding of the universe.

The three were key to the first observation of gravitational waves in September 2015.

When the discovery was announced several months later, it was a sensation not only among scientists but the general public.

"It's a win for the human race as a whole. These gravitational waves will be powerful ways for the human race to explore the universe," Thorne told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Weiss said he hopes that eventually gravitational waves will help science learn about "the very moment when the universe came out of nothingness."

"The best comparison is when Galileo discovered the telescope, which allowed us to see that Jupiter had moons and all of a sudden we discovered that the universe was much vaster than we used to think about. With this discovery we can study processes which were completely impossible, out of reach to us in the past," said Ariel Goobar of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

With the technology that the three developed "We may even see entirely new objects that we haven't even imagined yet," said Patrick Sutton, an astronomer at Cardiff University in Wales.

Gravitational waves are extremely faint ripples in the fabric of space and time, generated by some of the most violent events in the universe.

The waves detected by the laureates came from the collision of two black holes some 1.3 billion light-years away. A light-year is about 5.88 trillion miles.

The waves were predicted by Einstein a century ago as part of his theory of general relativity. General relativity says that gravity is caused by heavy objects bending space-time, which itself is the four-dimensional way that astronomers see the universe.

The German-born Weiss was awarded half of the 9-million-kronor ($1.1 million) prize amount and Thorne and Barish will split the other half.

Weiss in the 1970s designed a laser-based device that would overcome background noise that would disturb measurements of gravitational waves. He, Thorne and Barish "ensured that four decades of effort led to gravitational waves finally being observed," the Nobel announcement said.

The announcement said Einstein was convinced that gravitational waves could never be measured. The laureates used laser devices "to measure a change thousands of times smaller than an atomic nucleus."
In a moment of poetry aimed at making the distant and infinitesimal phenomenon understandable to non-experts, the academy announcement said gravitational waves "are always created when a mass accelerates, like when an ice-skater pirouettes or a pair of black holes rotate around each other."

The waves are like "a storm in the fabric of space-time that is produced when two black holes collide," Thorne said. The first detection came from a crash 1.3 billion light-years away. A light-year is about 5.88 trillion miles.

The prize is "a win for Einstein, and a very big one," Barish told the AP.

For the past 25 years, the physics prize has been shared among multiple winners.

Last year's prize went to three British-born researchers who applied the mathematical discipline of topology to help understand the workings of exotic matter such as superconductors and superfluids. In 2014, a Japanese and a Canadian shared the physics prize for studies that proved that the elementary particles called neutrinos have mass.

The 2017 Nobel prizes kicked off Monday with the medicine prize being awarded to three Americans studying circadian rhythms — better known as body clocks: Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young.



Faint Glow in Saturn… Did a Mystery Object Crash into the Gas Giant on Saturday?

New image captured by a NASA employee and amateur astronomer appears to show a space object crashing into Saturn for the first time. Photo: NASA
New image captured by a NASA employee and amateur astronomer appears to show a space object crashing into Saturn for the first time. Photo: NASA
TT
20

Faint Glow in Saturn… Did a Mystery Object Crash into the Gas Giant on Saturday?

New image captured by a NASA employee and amateur astronomer appears to show a space object crashing into Saturn for the first time. Photo: NASA
New image captured by a NASA employee and amateur astronomer appears to show a space object crashing into Saturn for the first time. Photo: NASA

Astronomers have called for help to identify a mystery object that may have hit Saturn on Saturday in what could be the first recorded instance of a space object crashing on to the gas giant.

Studies suggest large objects- measuring over a kilometer across – strike Saturn once every 3,125 years on an average, according to The Independent.

Although data shows seven or eight small space rocks hit the planet every year, none have been spotted in the act by astronomers so far.

Compared to rocky planets where cosmic collisions leave impact craters, gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn don’t reveal such signs.

But a new image captured by a Nasa employee and amateur astronomer Mario Rana appears to show a space object crashing into Saturn for the first time.

Since gas giants have outer layers made of hydrogen and helium, strikes by asteroids or comets can quickly fade out.

Rana is part of the DeTeCt project, which analyzes images of Jupiter and Saturn using computer software. Videos taken of Saturn by the astronomer last Saturday show a faint glow in the left side of the footage, which seems like an impact event.

The Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory, or PVOL, a consortium of professional and amateur astronomers, has called for experts in the field to attempt to confirm or refute the potential impact on Saturn.

“Marc Delcroix reports a potential impact in Saturn captured in a few frames in a video observation obtained by Mario Rana. The potential impact would be very faint and is unconfirmed,” PVOL said in a statement.

“The very short impact flash occurred on Saturn on 5 July 2025, between 9am and 9.15am UT. It is very important to get other videos of Saturn taken during that time frame.”

PVOL has urged astronomers who may have also captured observations from this time to contact Delcroix and submit their data.

Leigh N Fletcher, a planetary science professor at the University of Leicester, also called for amateur space observers to share any potential videos they may have of the impact.

“Amplifying the call from Marc Delcroix and co over the weekend: the team are looking to verify/refute a potential impact on Saturn on 5 July, 9am to 9.15am UT,” Dr Fletcher wrote on BlueSky.

“Videos taken by amateur observers at that time might hold the key.”