A mere three days ago, Lawrence M. Krauss, a theoretical physicist, sent the scientific community into a flurry of excitement when he announced the confirmation of the existence of the elusive gravitational wave. Krauss excitedly shared the information on his official twitter account however he has yet to name his independent sources.
"My earlier rumor about LIGO has been confirmed by independent sources. Stay tuned! Gravitational waves may have been discovered!! Exciting" read his tweet.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory or LIGO which is located at Livingston, Louisiana has been leading the search for the gravitational wave since it started its operations in 2002. Following Krauss' controversial claims, the observatory has since clarified that while their instruments are working perfectly they are still in the process of taking and studying acquired data.
"We are still taking data, and we won't finish analyzing and reviewing results until at least a month or two later. The instruments are working great, but ... I don't have any news with analysis results to share, yet" explained Gabriela Gonzalez, spokesperson for LIGO.
Despite the rumor being busted, interest on gravitational wave from scientists all over the globe have reached an all time peak. The clamor comes as no surprise as the theory has been waiting to be proven since Albert Einstein himself presented the idea a century ago in 1916.
Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time generated as result of massive celestial objects moving through the universe. Simply put, gravitational waves are akin to the ripples made by a drop of liquid in a still body of water.
There have been indirect proof of the wave's existence however according Chiara Mingarelli, a theoretical astrophysicist from the California Institute of Technology, a direct observation of gravitational waves would be revolutionary to the study of the universe.
