This artist's impression shows a pair of supermassive black holes circling each other and sending out gravitational waves, which affect the bright, shining pulsars. NANOGrav/Sonoma State University/Aurore Simonnet hide caption
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C.V. Vishveshwara in 2007 in Oak Park, Illinois. Namitha Vishveshwara hide caption
Scientist Corey Gray and his mother, Sharon Yellowfly, are pictured at one of the two massive detectors that make up the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. One facility, where Gray works, is in Washington state, and the other is in Louisiana. Courtesy of Russell Barber hide caption
How A Cosmic Collision Sparked A Native American Translator's Labor Of Love
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory is made up of two detectors, this one in Livingston, La., and one near Hanford, Wash. The detectors use giant arms in the shape of an "L" to measure tiny ripples in the fabric of the universe. Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab hide caption
Massive U.S. Machines That Hunt For Ripples In Space-Time Just Got An Upgrade
Dr. Enrico Fermi was the leader of the group of scientists who succeeded in initiating the first man-made nuclear chain reaction. AP hide caption
The original historical documents related to Albert Einstein's prediction of the existence of gravitational waves are seen at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Feb. 11, 2016. Sebastian Scheiner/AP hide caption
The collision of two neutron stars, seen in an artist's rendering, created both gravitational waves and gamma rays. Researchers used those signals to locate the event with optical telescopes. Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science hide caption
Einstein realized that if masses moved about, the deformations in space would also move about, propagating like waves, somewhat like what happens when you throw a rock on a pond. But, gravity being such a weak force, the effect is truly tiny and needs something very dramatic to create a signal we can detect here. This is exactly what was found by LIGO and the Nobel winners. traveler1116/Getty Images hide caption
The star-forming area Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula, is a vast region of gas, dust and hot young stars that lies in the heart of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius. ESO/INAF-VST/OmegaCAM hide caption
Spiral galaxy NGC 6814, whose luminous nucleus and spectacular sweeping arms, rippled with an intricate pattern of dark dust, are captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. ESA/Hubble & NASA hide caption
The black holes were 14 and 8 times the mass of the sun. As they spiraled together, they sent out gravitational waves. LIGO/T. Pyle hide caption
Gravitational Waves From Colliding Black Holes Shake Scientists' Detectors Again
An image from a simulation of two black holes merging. Courtesy of SXS Collaboration hide caption
Einstein, A Hunch And Decades Of Work: How Scientists Found Gravitational Waves
A LIGO optics technician inspects one of LIGO's core optics by illuminating its surface with light. It is critical to LIGO's operation that there is no contamination on any of its optical surfaces. Matt Heintze/Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab hide caption