This time it seems they nailed it for real: gravitational waves

[Skybird]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35524440

If true this is one of the very real and most maximum biggies in the history of science.

[Tchocky]

"We found a beautiful signature from of the merger of two black holes and it agrees exactly - fantastically - with the numerical solutions to Einstein equations... it looked too beautiful to be true," said Prof Danzmann.
Prof Sheila Rowan, who is one of the lead UK researchers involved in the project, said that the first detection of gravitational waves was just the start of a "terrifically exciting" journey.
"The fact that we are sitting here on Earth feeling the actual fabric of the Universe stretch and compress slightly due to the merger of black holes that occurred just over a billion years ago - I think that's phenomenal. It's amazing that when we first turned on our detectors, the Universe was ready and waiting to say 'hello'," the Glasgow University scientist told the BBC.

Big news!

[Skybird]

^ An understatement that is.

If true.

[Dowly]

Gotta love science!

[Betonov]

Does this mean that gravity travels with the speed of light ??
Answering the question if the sun just disapeared would Earth take a straight line at that same moment or would we still follow an orbit for 8 more minutes.

That's what I get from this

"The fact that we are sitting here on Earth feeling the actual fabric of the Universe stretch and compress slightly due to the merger of black holes that occurred just over a billion years ago - I think that's phenomenal.

[Tchocky]

We need to build a wall to keep these so-called "waves" out.

[Oberon]

Darn waves, coming over here and messing with our gravity, ain't right I tell ya!

[tomfon]

Originally Posted by Betonov

Does this mean that gravity travels with the speed of light ??
Answering the question if the sun just disapeared would Earth take a straight line at that same moment or would we still follow an orbit for 8 more minutes.

That's what I get from this

Gravity is actually described by two theories: Historically, it was Newton who first proposed a theory (Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation) while Einstein described gravity more accurately in his general theory of relativity. So, according to Einstein's theory gravity or better, gravitational waves, travel with the speed light just as light does, since it behaves like a wave.

Now, if we suppose that the sun suddenly disappears, we will take notice of the phenomenon 8 minutes after it happened, because 8 min is -approximately- the amount of time that has to elapse, before light arrives to earth (the distance between sun and earth is approximately 150 million km). As to what happens to earth, well, earth would abandon its elliptical orbit flying off in a straight line, just like you said. Next, it might be possible that earth could "catch up" with an outer planet since (earth) will be travelling with a greater speed. However, the sun has enough fuel for another 5 billion years so i believe we're quite safe for the time being.

[mapuc]

This is truly a great discovery. I try to compare it with other great discovery or inventions we the human kind have done since way back.

Markus

[Gargamel]

Yay Science!

[ivanov.ruslan]

I was interested to learn recently that Einstein assists Dr Hermann Anschutz in his work They were actually friends

[Jimbuna]

Interesting to see what, if any further developments are discovered as a result.

[Jimbuna]

In the meantime....

Ground controllers say it is time to give up hope of ever hearing again from the comet lander Philae.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35559503

[Oberon]

If the Theory of General Relativity is on its way to being accepted as fact (obviously more observations will be required, which is a PITA since binary black holes aren't exactly a common occurance) then it perhaps gives some hope to the Alcubierre drive theory.