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Albert Einstein Was Right: Gravitational Waves Do Exist

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The force may be a catch phrase in Star Wars movies, but scientists have found a real force.

It's gravitational waves and as Alex DeMetrick reports, it really does come from a galaxy far away and a long time ago.

When two black holes a billion light years from Earth began spinning toward each other, energy radiated outward.

When they merged into one super black hole, gravitational waves spiraled away at the speed of light.

"This is something completely different, these are gravitational waves that by the time they get to Earth, they're very hard to pick up. It's like we've almost been deaf to it forever," said Jim O'Leary, of the Maryland Science Center.

But not anymore.

This chirp is a sound representation of a gravitational wave passing through Earth captured by two immense detectors in Louisiana and Washington know as Ligo.

Each with twin tubes 2.5 miles long, with identical laser bears designed to capture the extremely weak push-pull force of gravity waves.

In September, a billion years after the black holes collided, the wave arrived at Earth.

The discovery comes exactly one century after Albert Einstein first theorized it.

"As part of his theory of relativity and now it's something we can actually prove," O'Leary said.

Up to now astronomy has mainly relied on light to study the universe.

Gravity wave astronomy could track down unseen supernova explosions, neutrons stars colliding, even the big band that started the universe.

"It should develop a whole new slew of discoveries we haven't understood before," he added.

Wave after wave of them.

While the two immense detectors are in the United States,  it took 1,000 scientists working together to make the discovery possible.

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