If you’ve been checking various researchers’ Twitter pages, you may have already noticed that there’s a lot of excitement amongst scientists as gravitational waves may be proven to exist – finally. They were originally envisioned and predicted by Albert Einstein back in 1916, on basis of the theory of general relativity.

In essence, gravitational waves are believed to be ripples made by bodies in the curvature of spacetime. Because of the effect of gravity, energy can therefore be transported along these ripples and become known as gravitational radiation. They are believed to be more often occurring in binary star systems, neutron stars or black holes.

There has been an ongoing experiment known as LIGO – Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory – that hopes to reproduce and detect gravitational waves in a man-designed environment. While it is not yet confirmed that the experiment resulted in the expected conclusion, several big names in the scene have been at it and getting particularly excited about the prospect as the experiment is nearing its end.

LIGO will announce its findings on Thursday at 3.30 PM GMT in a paper published in Nature, along with an official press release. If gravitational waves are proved to exist, it would therefore confirm Einstein’s beliefs exactly 100 years later than they were made. The method that the researchers employed for confirming or infirming the theory that gravitational waves exist is by measuring incredibly tiny changes in the length of a tunnel all the way at the LIGO Hanford Observatory.

Gravitational waves are believed to be one of the most elusive, intriguing and yet mysterious phenomena in our universe; this is partly because they are caused by rather rare events that take place very far away from what the human eyes can reach. Mankind is only capable of theorizing what a merger of black holes would mean and how gravitational waves would be created as a result.

That is exactly what the scientists are trying to mimic – but naturally at a much smaller scale – in their laboratories at the LIGO Hanford Observatory. And judging by the reactions that they’re barely controlling themselves from having via social media, it would appear that they only have good news for humanity.

If Einstein’s theory is confirmed, this could lead to much more ambitious scientific goals for the human race – and may eventually lead to discovering some method of time travelling; although that would certainly take a lot longer than we’d think.

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