In case anyone is interested LIGO is doing a press conference today at 9. Rumor has it that they detected a collision between two neutron stars and confirmed it optically. This would basically be the final confirmation of gravitational waves in case there were any lingering doubts.
Gravitational waves are important for two reasons: they are a prediction of Einstein's general relativity and their detection offers further evidence for its veracity, and because they are a new way of detecting the universe. An analogy for the second point might be that up until we found gravitational waves we were deaf to the universe: all we were doing was looking at It. Now we can listen to It too.
The press conference can be watched here:
Gravitational waves are important for two reasons: they are a prediction of Einstein's general relativity and their detection offers further evidence for its veracity, and because they are a new way of detecting the universe. An analogy for the second point might be that up until we found gravitational waves we were deaf to the universe: all we were doing was looking at It. Now we can listen to It too.
The press conference can be watched here: