Gravitational astronomy Aircraft.
Media coverage of LIGO is remarkably similar to the one generated by a previous gravitational wave announcement. In March 2014, a team overseeing the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization observatory, or BICEP2, claimed to have detected gravitational waves produced by inflation, an extremely rapid and hypothetical cosmic growth spurt has answered many questions.
The lead BICEP2 researcher, John Kovac, assured The New York Times that “the chance that the results were a fluke was only one in 10 million.” Expressed doubts, by saying wanted “an explanation of why only inflation, and not other more conventional physical phenomena, can account for the gravity-wave findings.” Early in 2015, the BICEP2 researchers withdrew their claim, on an acknowledging that their observations had been distorted by dust in the Milky Way.
Theirs doubt the LIGO team will meet a similar fate, for several reasons. First, LIGO consists of two separate observatories, in Louisiana and Washington State, each of which recorded the chirp on September 14. Second, precisely because of the BICEP2 debacle, the LIGO team has no doubt extra-obsessively rechecked its observations. Third, the theoretical basis for black holes is more sound than that for inflation.
As one does wonder about the specificity of the colliding black-holes explanation. This is how the Times put it: “One of the black holes was 36 times as massive as the sun, the other 29. As they approached the end, at half the speed of light, they were circling each other 250 times a second. And then the ringing stopped as the two holes coalesced into a single black hole, a trapdoor in space with the equivalent mass of 62 suns.”
Non-LIGO theorists are undoubtedly now seeking alternative explanations. Ultimately, as the LIGO team itself acknowledges, its findings will need to be buttressed by other gravitational-wave observatories, including, possibly, space-based ones. Even given confirmation, the LIGO result raises another question:
Was it worth it?
LIGO has cost American taxpayers about $1.1 billion. That is how much the National Science Foundation has spent on the project over the past 40 years, according to the Times. Unfortunately, federally-funded science is a zero-sum game. More spending on one project means less spending on others. It laid the mile stone on how universe began.
The lead BICEP2 researcher, John Kovac, assured The New York Times that “the chance that the results were a fluke was only one in 10 million.” Expressed doubts, by saying wanted “an explanation of why only inflation, and not other more conventional physical phenomena, can account for the gravity-wave findings.” Early in 2015, the BICEP2 researchers withdrew their claim, on an acknowledging that their observations had been distorted by dust in the Milky Way.
Theirs doubt the LIGO team will meet a similar fate, for several reasons. First, LIGO consists of two separate observatories, in Louisiana and Washington State, each of which recorded the chirp on September 14. Second, precisely because of the BICEP2 debacle, the LIGO team has no doubt extra-obsessively rechecked its observations. Third, the theoretical basis for black holes is more sound than that for inflation.
As one does wonder about the specificity of the colliding black-holes explanation. This is how the Times put it: “One of the black holes was 36 times as massive as the sun, the other 29. As they approached the end, at half the speed of light, they were circling each other 250 times a second. And then the ringing stopped as the two holes coalesced into a single black hole, a trapdoor in space with the equivalent mass of 62 suns.”
Non-LIGO theorists are undoubtedly now seeking alternative explanations. Ultimately, as the LIGO team itself acknowledges, its findings will need to be buttressed by other gravitational-wave observatories, including, possibly, space-based ones. Even given confirmation, the LIGO result raises another question:
Was it worth it?
LIGO has cost American taxpayers about $1.1 billion. That is how much the National Science Foundation has spent on the project over the past 40 years, according to the Times. Unfortunately, federally-funded science is a zero-sum game. More spending on one project means less spending on others. It laid the mile stone on how universe began.
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