Radio România Internațional

Tag: gravitational waves

  • Major discovery made by NASA

    Major discovery made by NASA

    NASA has announced a major breakthrough: it discovered Earth-like habitable planets orbiting a remote star. The seven exoplanets make up a system which is at least one billion years old, which orbits an ultra-cool, low-density dwarf star, called TRAPPIST-1, located at 40 light years away in the Aquarius constellation. The star has 8% of the Suns diameter, and, according to researchers involved in the project, the proximity of the system and the considerable size of the seven exoplanets, as compared to the size of the dwarf star Trappist-1, have turned the new celestial formation into the favourite subject of future research. According to astronomer Nikole Lewis, from the Space Telescope Science Institute, TRAPPIST-1 gives us the unique chance to study the atmosphere of Earth-sized planets over the following years. Romanian science journalist Alexandru Mironov has more on the significance of this discovery:



    “It is a long-awaited moment for the science world, as well as for the world of imagination-it is proof that the Universe is the same everywhere. That is… there are stars and planets orbiting the stars, planets of various sizes, revolving around stars of various sizes and that many of them are Earth-like, in terms of characteristics and chances to sustain life. So, it is a moment when we start asking ourselves whether or not our descendants will truly try to step out of the solar system. It is equally a moment which changes the mentality of human society, because if we start thinking beyond the limits of our solar system, we should really take a first step here, in the solar system. Just imagine that in a relatively short time span, of 15-20 years, people will have already set foot on Mars and will have started colonising the planet. It will mark the inception of travels to the Moon and of economic adventures looking for us there. The discovery does not produce an immediate economic effect, but, as weve said earlier, there will be a drastic change in mentality after that. From now on, nobody can believe the Earth is unique in the Universe. The Universe looks like the cosmos featured in the equations of mathematicians, astrophysicists and cosmology experts.



    Given their density, the planets seem to have rocky compositions. Experts recall that water is the key life-sustaining element on Earth, which is why all research on Trappist focuses on water as a starting point. Researchers have labelled the discovery as an important puzzle piece when talking about life-sustaining environments, and are due to determine whether the planets are capable of supporting liquid water on their surface. For the time being, what is certain is that the exoplanets are far enough from the sun to have water, while three of them have the potential of supporting lifeforms. Here is Alexandru Mironov again.



    “NASA hasnt gone public with this research, but its clear they have divided the sky in areas they study separately, astronomers working in Atacama, Chile, studying different promising areas. Well, 40 light-years away theres this star that has all these features, and its a big possibility that three of these seven planets could sustain life. The type of lifeforms it has, we do not yet know, but they are definitely carbon-based, this is my opinion.



    The first exoplanet, 51 Pegasi B, was discovered in 1995 by Swiss astronomers. Since then, NASA has confirmed the existence of another 3,500 exoplanets in the Universe. Last year alone a planet similar to Earth was found in the Proxima Centauri galaxy, 4.24 light-years away. What makes TRAPPIST 1 so special then? It is the first time a large number of Earth-like planets are discovered orbiting around the same star. What can we expect from now on? Alexandru Mironov told us.



    “We should expect a series of extraordinary events. Lets not forget that six months ago the world witnessed the re-discovery, so to say, of gravitational waves by the LIGO system in the US. That means we will soon have the capacity to build new telescopes using this new technology. And that, in turn, will provide us with a new way of looking at the universe, apart from light, infrared, X and gamma rays. We already know a great deal about the Universe, but theres a lot more we can learn. We now have equipment orbiting the Earth, on the Moon or on Mars or orbiting Mars. We are making new advancements every day. We are gradually turning from Homo sapiens into Homo cosmicus. Whatever its consequences, the discovery of life-sustaining planets brings us one step closer to answering the question on everyones lips: are we alone in the universe? (Translated by D. Vijeu and V. Palcu)

  • A New Window to the Universe

    A New Window to the Universe

    100 years ago, Albert Einstein was talking about ripples in space and time produced by the movement of objects with very large mass, issuing the idea of gravitational waves. Einstein’s theory could not be proven for a long time, but recently a team of American scientists announced they could detect the waves directly. According to NASA astrophysicist, Ira Thorpe, they have a structure similar to that of light. They are a type of electromagnetic radiation, but they are in fact the space and time we all know. He said a comparison can be made: if we put in motion electrically charged particles, we get light but when we move entire masses of matter, we get gravitational waves.


    Direct detection comes after a violent cosmic event, such as the case of two black holes, one 35 times larger than the Sun, the other 30 times larger, that fused over a billion light years away from us. In the last moments, they spun around each other dozens of times per second, each having half the speed of light when slamming into each other, according to astrophysicists.



    Here is science journalist Alexandru Mironov: “This is a groundbreaking event. It is a moment in history equivalent to the discovery of the Higgs boson, the particle that grants mass to any substance. Everyone knows that if you throw a ball up in the air, it falls back down to Earth, we learned in school that the Moon revolves around the Earth, the Earth around the Sun, all these are gravitational attraction. The question is: how does it work? Probably by gravitational waves, there are probably some particles, just as light has photons — small bits of light, there is probably a graviton, experts supposed, and one day they will catch it and uncover it. They built for this purpose special devices, laser interferometers, called LIGO, which emit two perpendicular laser beams, balanced and calibrated so they don’t get moved by anything. These waves lie in waiting. They are a trap for gravitational waves that may manifest somewhere out there. It so happened that one billion light years away from us, there was a concentration of matter and energy so large that it has shaken the entire fabric of the Universe, and the movement got to us, this seism of gravitational waves.”



    After discovering a few years ago the so-called God particle, the scientific community considers this experimental discovery an extraordinary achievement. Scientists turned the signal they detected into radio waves, and so they could listen to the sound of two black holes crashing into each other.



    Here is Washington correspondent Doina Saiciuc, speaking shortly after the announcement: “The discovery of gravitational waves opens a new door into studying the Universe. It is like turning from silent movies to talkies, since these waves are the very sound of the Universe. Astrophysicist Szabolcs Marka, from Columbia University in New York, one of the members of the team that made the discovery, said that so far we only looked up at the sky, but couldn’t listen to its music. He also said that the skies would never be the same. On 14 September 2015, 5:51 on the US East Coast, the LIGO detectors — Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington state, measured the waves caused in the space-time continuum, gravitational waves, which reached Earth from a cataclysmic event that happened somewhere far in the Universe. Decades of research by thousands of scientists across the world, with support from LIGO and the US National Science Foundation culminated in this historic discovery.”



    In Bucharest, Alexandru Mironov recalled that Einstein said there would be a moment when the evolution of physics would allow for gravitational waves to be perceived: “I believe that we can talk about a new giant leap made by this biped with a wide perspective that is Homo Sapiens. All of a sudden we have made a huge step forward in knowing the world. The brain is capable of understanding the machinery of the Universe ticks. Gravitational waves are the key of keys for what is happening in the Universe.”



    Mironov has added that we are waiting for the moment when engineers step up to the challenge behind the physicists, and, similarly with quantum mechanics, they make use of discoveries around gravitational waves in order to build a gravitational telescope, for instance, capable of reading what happens with matter and energy in the Cosmos, in the span of 13.8 billion light years that is the Universe.

  • February 12, 2016

    February 12, 2016

    STATISTICS – Romania last year reported an economic growth of 3.7% as compared to 2014, above the estimated 3.5% announced by the European Commission. According to data made public today by the National Statistics Institute, Romanias GDP went up in the last quarter of 2014 by 1.1% as compared to the third quarter. Recently the European Commission has upgraded its economic growth forecast for Romania in 2015, to 3.6% of the countrys GDP. The Commission believes Romanias economic growth might reach 4.2%, only to balance out at 3.7% in 2017.



    VISIT – Romanias president Klaus Iohannis is today visiting the German land of Bavaria. Klaus Iohannis is today meeting Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer in Munich, while later today he is expected to attend the 52nd Security Conference also held in Munich until Sunday. The Romanian President will be a keynote speaker at the conference as part of the discussion panel devoted to the future of NATO. Other topics will approach NATOs attitude towards the Russian Federation, the refugee crisis, the future of NATO, terrorism, the developments in Syria, Ukraine and Africa and climate change. On Thursday, Klaus Iohannis met the president of the Parliament of Bavaria Barbara Stamm, with whom he discussed migration-related challenges.



    INFECTION – Medical authorities in Romania are on high alert after scores of children under two years of age were admitted in hospitals in Bucharest and Arges County with serious disorders of the digestive system. Some of the children even have kidney-related affections, after having been infected with the E-coli virus. An 11-month-old girl died last week and another 11 children are receiving medical care in Bucharest. 4 of them are in critical condition. In another development, the National Centre for Monitoring and Controlling Infections has announced another 8 people in Romania died in the first week of February after being infected with swine flu, raising the overall death toll for this year to 9 dead.



    VATICAN – Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill are today meeting on Havana Airport in Cuba. This will be the first such meeting since the Great Schism of 1054. While Patriarch Kirill is on an official visit to Cuba, the Pope will stop in Havana on his way to Mexico. The two will discuss relations between the two Churches, including the issue of the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine and defending Christian values in Europe. Another topic on the agenda is the persecution of Christians in conflict areas in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Since he was elected head of the Catholic Church in 2013, Pope Francis has made ecumenism a priority, advocating for consolidating relations between the various Christian churches.



    BREAKTHROUGH – An international team of researchers on Thursday announced the successful detection of gravitational waves, a major breakthrough for the world of science that opens up a window on the universe, France Press news agency reports. The discovery confirms Albert Einsteins theory of general relativity put forth 100 years ago, according to which the gravitational waves travel throughout the universe. Scientists made the discovery in the wake of a violent cosmic event. Two black holes collided some 1,3 billion years ago. Their clash was picked up by three laser interferometers with the LIGO laboratory, one of the most sensitive man-made instruments. Researchers already say astronomy has entered a new era, comparing the event to the first use of the telescope by Galileo Galilei.



    FILM – Mohamed Ben Attias long feature Hedi is today opening the 66th edition of the Berlin Film Festival. 18 features will compete for the Golden Bear to be awarded on February 20. The jury is this year presided by American actress Meryl Streep, three-time Oscar winner. Representing Romania in the Forum section is Adrian Sitarus feature Illegitimate, which will premiere on Saturday. In the Generation 14plus category, Roxana Stroe will present her short film A night in Tokoriki, while actress Iuliea Ciochina and screen writer Ruxandra Ghitescu will attend the Berlinale Talents. We recall that last year Radu Judes Aferim! scooped the Silver Bear award.


    (Translated by V. Palcu)