What gravitational waves can teach us about creation

A momentary chirp rocked the scientific world last week when a team of researchers announced they had detected signals from gravitational waves produced when two black holes, with masses 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, collided over a billion light years away. Since then, scientists have been giddy over the news.

“This detection is the beginning of a new era: The field of gravitational wave astronomy is now a reality,” Gabriela González, a Louisiana State University physics and astronomy professor, said in a statement.

But why is this discovery such a big deal?

Over 100 years ago, Albert Einstein developed his theory of relativity, which is the foundation of the space-time concept. Space-time is a mathematical model in which 3-D space and time are not separate things, but are interwoven into a single continuum commonly called the “fabric” of space-time; a dynamic entity that can stretch, shrink, and tremble.

Scientists often use the analogy of a trampoline to explain space-time. Any amount of matter will bend space-time just as a trampoline will bend when a person jumps on it. And just as a heavier person will bend the trampoline more than a lighter person, so heavier objects in space bend the space-time continuum more. Einstein discovered that the curvature objects produce in the fabric of space-time causes gravity. He predicted that moving celestial objects will create ripples of gravity in the fabric of space-time, just like a boat moving through water produces ripples.

Scientists have been searching for Einstein's predicted ripples, or gravitational waves, for over a century. Last week, two L-shaped antennas, known as Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, identified the first evidence that Einstein was correct—gravitational waves do exist.

The discovery also confirms what scientists have predicted about the nature of black holes, regions of space with such intense gravitational fields that not even light can escape.

Scientists have predicted that when two black holes orbit each other they lose energy because their proximity to each other causes them to emit waves of gravity. Gravity pulls them ever closer to each other until they eventually collide, forming a single, more massive black hole. A portion of the combined black hole's mass is converted into energy. That energy is emitted as a final burst of gravitational waves that ripple through space-time—the burst that the LIGO detectors picked up and converted into audio signals.

But the discovery is also a big deal for Christians. Being able to detect gravitational waves from black hole collisions could allow scientists to directly probe events leftover from the birth of creation. “It is an unprecedented snapshot into the briefest of moments after the beginning of the universe,” Jeff Zweerink, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote on the Reasons to Believe blog.

The LIGO discovery affirms that Einstein was right and “if general relativity is correct, that implies there is a beginning to the universe, and if there is a beginning, then there is a beginner,” Zweerink said on a podcast.

Hugh Ross, astrophysicist and author, agreed: “All Christians can rejoice in today’s announced discovery of the direct detection of gravity waves."