An 'unknown' burst of gravitational waves just lit up Earth's detectors

CNET ^ | 01/14/2020 | Jackson Ryan

[BenLurkin]

Earth's gravitational wave observatories -- which hunt for ripples in the fabric of space-time -- just picked up something weird. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo detectors recorded an unknown or unanticipated "burst" of gravitational waves on Jan. 14.

The gravitational waves we've detected so far usually relate to extreme cosmic events, like two black holes colliding or neutron stars finally merging after being caught in a death spiral. Burst gravitational waves have not been detected before and scientists hypothesize they may be linked to phenomena such as supernova or gamma ray bursts, producing a tiny "pop" when detected by the observatories.

This unanticipated burst has been dubbed, for now, S200114f, and was detected by the software that helped confirm the first detection of gravitational waves.

[steve86]

“Maybe Betelgeuse really did go Supernova.”

Maybe, but I can tell you that the Hanford LIGO parking lot looks just like any other Friday (but with a couple inches of snow).

[laplata]

It’s levitation but that’s about all I would know about it.

[voicereason]

But this is all still theoretical, and none of directly observed. So my question is has the science really been settled, or this just some theory being claimed as fact?

[steve86]

"Seeing" the gravitational waves (via detectors) and visually observing the accompanying light emissions (as has occurred following a Supernova explosion) is direct observation.

[steve86]

Correction: it was a neutron star collision, not Supernova explosion.

[SunkenCiv]

Back in the Transcendental Meditation heyday, the presenters were claiming that the fulltime TM people could levitate (that's a good way to not set the hook, if ya ask me). Turns out they were real photos, but they had to be timed just right, because the meditators were actually hopping straight up from lotus, something that is difficult to do -- but it isn't levitation. This guy in the photo above is way too far off the floor to be hopping in that manner.

[laplata]

Thanks for that. You sum it up nicely.