11 year long black hole study leaves scientists nowhere

It’s been almost a hundred years since Albert Einstein proposed his general theory of relativity of which, gravitational waves were a key component. The problem is that these waves are nowhere to be found. An 11-year study carried out by researchers working with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and the Parkes telescope in Australia has left the scientists empty-handed as they searched for gravitational waves in the background of black holes.

A Black hole is considered to have a massive amount of gravitational pull as it does not let anything escape it. This is also the reason why it is called black hole, as even light can’t escape it. Gravitational waves were believed to provide a closer look back in time the way the universe began expanding when it first came into existence. Scientists have been looking for these waves for a long time but still, so far no solid evidence of their existence has come to light. Scientists observed through the Parkes telescope expecting to detect the aftershock from the explosion that kicked off the universe’s 13.2 billion year existence up to this point.

However, they failed and the researchers found it very bizarre that they could not find even single evidence that these gravitational waves exist. According to researcher CSIRO Ryan Shannon, “In terms of gravitational waves, it seems to be all quiet on the cosmic front. However by pushing our telescopes to the limits required for this sort of cosmic search, we’re moving into new frontiers, forcing ourselves to understand how galaxies and black holes work.”

Many of the phenomenon’s like galaxies grow by smashing into each other, with the larger ones absorbing matter form the smaller ones, the presence of a massive black hole at the center of the largest galaxies etc. have been explained by Einstein’s theories but the gravitational waves he predicted to emerge from the center of the black holes were nowhere to be found. But, researchers are not giving up hope just yet as the team working with Perkes telescope plans to continue to study this, while recording every bit of information the telescope could possibly pick up which could determine where the gravitational waves are actually going. According to Lindley Lentati, approaching the waves from a higher frequency might prove more successful in the future. Astronomers might also get additional help when the super-sensitive Square Kilometer Array telescope is brought into operation, with construction beginning sometime around 2018.

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