Press releases

MINSK, 12 February (BelTA) – Belarusian scientists make their own contribution to gravity studies, BelTA learned from Yuri Vybly, Candidate of Physics and Math, leading researcher at the theoretical physics center of the B.I. Stepanov Physics Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. The statement was prompted by mass media reports about scientists being able to confirm the existence of gravity waves.

“Further studies into gravity represent a priority task for scientists all over the world now. Belarusian scientists also make their own contribution to this research,” noted Yuri Vybly. In his opinion, the discovery of gravity waves is the second most outstanding recent experimental contribution to gravity interaction studies after the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe in 1998. Gravitational interaction is the weakest kind of interaction and is therefore the least researched kind.

The Belarusian scientist pointed out that the Belarusian school of thought on gravity studies emerged in the 1960s. It has since reached considerable success in advancing the gravity theory and experimental methods of this branch of science. It is confirmed by the fact that a major international conference timed to the 100^th anniversary since the birth of academician Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich, who has made a huge contribution to the theory of gravity, astrophysics, and cosmology, took place in Minsk in 2014.

On 11 February scientists of the international collaboration project LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational Observatory) declared that gravity waves had been detected in an experiment. The gravity waves were registered on 14 September 2015 by two detectors in the LIGO facilities located in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington in the USA.

The collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light years away from our galaxy is believed to be the source of those gravity waves. The discovery is the first direct proof that gravity waves exist. Their existence was theorized by Albert Einstein back in 1916. Gravity waves were indirectly observed as part of studies into the movement of binary stars in 1974. Now it is possible to register gravity waves thanks to progress in measuring extremely small vibrations using laser technologies.

Further gravity wave experiments — ground and space ones (as part of the international project LISA which stands for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) — are expected to result in the emergence of a new branch of science — gravity wave astronomy as well as future discoveries in the area of fundamental physics.