3 ms·
To put this in perspective: Since the first hominids looked up at the stars, till literally yesterday, mankind had only one fundamental force to observe the un
by hliyan 9y ago
To put this in perspective:
Since the first hominids looked up at the stars, till literally yesterday, mankind had only one fundamental force to observe the universe with: electromagnetic waves, be it light, radio waves or infrared. From today, we have two. The other two remaining fundamental forces do not operate at astronomical scales.
Of course, we had LIGO before yesterday, but for me, the confirmation through electromagnetic wave observations is key. This is an historic day!
- pvg 9y agoWe've detected neutrinos from the rest of the universe for some time.
- semaphoreP 9y agoWe've also been observing the universe using neutrinos (generated by the weak force). In fact, there have even been one neutrino event linked to a possible astrophysical source[1], but with less certainty than this gravitational wave/EM detection. [1]: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasas-fermi-telescope-helps-link-cosmic-neutrino-to-blazar-blast/ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasas-fermi-telesc...
- pvg 9y agoSupernovae neutrinos have been detected for 30 years, it's not just one event.