Proving Einstein Right
Jan. 24, 2005 — -- It was 100 years ago when an obscure 26-year-old office worker in a Swiss patent office submitted five papers that would radically change the way people think about the universe.
In fact, Albert Einstein's ideas, devised entirely from thought, were so advanced that scientists are still trying to prove some of them.
To find evidence for the brilliant physicist's ideas, researchers are using the latest in technology and a century of research -- neither of which Einstein had when he devised such profound concepts as the General Theory of Relativity.
"It's amazing Einstein came up with his theories just by thinking about the situation," said Peter Shawhan, a staff scientist at the California Institute of Technology.
Shawhan is part of a large team of researchers who operate LIGO, a set of two giant, L-shaped experiments in Louisiana marshland and Washington state forestland. The facilities each feature two 2.5-mile-long steel tubes built in perfectly straight lines that are designed to detect one of the faintest and most rare signals in the universe -- gravitational waves.
According to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, gravitational waves are sent out by any object that undergoes acceleration. The waves are so faint, however, that only those emanating from huge events -- such as colliding neutron stars or two black holes smashing together -- can be detected.
Even waves from these events are so faint that by the time they reach Earth, they will be recorded by a difference of timing in the instruments amounting to just 0.0000000000000000000000001th of a second.
"This is one of the hardest parts of his theory to prove because the waves we hope to see are just so incredibly weak," said Shawhan. "It's a tiny effect."
So far, the crew of scientists has no direct evidence the waves are there. But a century ago Einstein proposed their existence, and so they're confident they'll prove him right. It's just a matter of when.
An instrument at the joint of the two passageways sends light beams down each arm. The light travels down the tubes and hits mirrors at the near and far ends of each tunnel and then bounces back and forth 100 times.
Related Stories
ABC News Live