Recently, scientists observed the merger of giant ‘blackholes’ billions of light-years away from the Earth. What is the significance of this observation?
Explanation
Option B is correct: The collision and coalescence of two distant, massive stellar black holes observed by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo detectors provided direct experimental verification of Gravitational Waves:
– Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime predicted by Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity in 1916.
– The direct observation of signals generated during black hole mergers confirmed that acceleration of massive celestial bodies produces propagating perturbations in spacetime.
Therefore, the significance was that ’Gravitational waves’ were detected — Option B.