LIGO/VIRGO first detection of gravitational waves from colliding neutron stars.
Image credit: Karan Jani/Georgia Tech

This was quicker than expected: Only two years after the observation of gravitational waves (we reported on this) in September 2015, the The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne, all members of the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration.

As if they wanted to prove them right, LIGO and VIRGO detected the first gravitational waves originating from colliding neutron stars less than 14 days after being awarded the Nobel Prize.

Fun fact: While we at qutools are anything but experts on gravitational waves and such, one of our team members (who will remain anonymous for his (or her) own protection; OK, it’s me) owns a book called “Black Holes and Time Warps” authored by Kip S. Thorne. Furthermore, Prof. Thorne has written a whole book on “The Science of Interstellar”. Maybe we finally get a scientific explanation of the physics behind Ant-Man, too? We are thrilled!

Tagged as: 2017 gravitational waves nobel prize