Mexican among scientists who detected gravitational waves

Mexican Guillermo Adrián Valdés was part of the team of scientists involved in the discovery of gravitational waves produced by the collision of two black holes about 29-36 times the mass of the sun, confirming a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity.

“The morning of September 14, 2015 looked pretty normal in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)” said Guillermo Adrián Valdés.

In an interview with the News Agency of the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt), Valdés explained that the discovery required the use of sensors, microphones, seismometers, magnetometers, and cosmic ray detectors.

“The gravitational waves were detected on September 14, 2015 by both of the LIGO detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, U.S.” he said.

"We had a combination of nervous and happy laughter, but we all knew we had a long way before confirming that our detection was real," he added.

Valdés said that after the discovery they spent five months of intensive work to analyze the result, since it has an important impact on science that would help to understand the universe.

"This result motivates us to continue investigating and improving LIGO to discover what else the universe has to say," said the Mexican scientist.

The new LIGO discovery is the first observation of gravitational waves themselves, made by measuring the tiny disturbances the waves make to space and time as they pass through the earth.