Indian scientists played a key role in the project that has won Nobel prize in Physics

Oct 03, 2017 05:18 PM IST | Source: Moneycontrol.com

Indian scientists contributed by creating models which helped in detecting the gravitational waves

Moneycontrol News Three American physicists working on gravitational waves on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project has been awarded Nobel Prize in Physics. Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne who along with their team managed to record gravitational waves in 2015 were awarded the coveted prize for “opening up unseen worlds.”

The LIGO project is a collaborative project with over one thousand researchers from more than 20 countries including India. Sixty-seven scientists from 13 Indian institutions have made vital contributions in capturing the gravitational waves.

Indian scientists developed the theoretical modelling of gravitational-wave signals from black holes and data-analysis techniques used to detect weak signals hidden in noise in the subsequent waves.The waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein a hundred years ago. In his theory of relativity, Einstein said gravitational waves spread at the speed of light, filling the universe. They are always created when a mass accelerates, like when ice-skater pirouettes or a pair of black holes rotate around each other.

Interestingly, Einstein was convinced that it would never be possible to measure them. The LIGO project’s achievement was using a pair of gigantic laser interferometers to measure a change thousands of times smaller than an atomic nucleus, as the gravitational wave passed the Earth.Nobel prizes are given by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The three scientists will share 9 million Swedish Krona (approx. Rs 7.2 crores) received as prize money.