A hundred years after Einstein predicted their existence, faint ripples in the fabric of the cosmos finally made their debut. Called gravitational waves, these ripples are created by some of the most violent events in the universe. Despite their extreme origins, gravitational waves remained elusive for so long because their effects on the observable universe are very small.

100年前愛因斯坦就預言了時空波的存在,宇宙結構中的虛弱波動終于登場了。這些波被稱為引力波,是由宇宙中一些威力最大的碰撞造成的。盡管引力波的來源巨大,但它卻沉寂如此之久,因為它對我們察覺到的宇宙的影響微乎其微。

But with the help of highly sensitive detectors in Louisiana and Washington State, scientists at last managed to sense gravitational waves passing through Earth in February. Even better, the labs detected a second round of ripples a few months later, confirming that the signal was no fluke. Astronomers are overjoyed at the achievement, because gravitational waves can act as a new way of seeing otherwise invisible objects in the universe, such as directly measuring the properties of enigmatic black holes.

但在路易斯安那州和華盛頓州高靈敏度的探測器的幫助下,科學家最終在二月份成功探測到了引力波波及地球。還有更好的消息,幾個月后實驗室又探測到了第二輪引力波,證明了波動信號并非偶然。天文學家能取得這個成就特別興奮,因為引力波能成為觀察此前宇宙中無法看到的物體的一種新方式,比如直接探測神秘莫測的黑洞中的物質。