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An 'unknown' burst of gravitational waves just lit up Earth's detectors:
Earth's gravitational wave observatories -- which hunt for ripples in the fabric of space-time -- just picked up something weird. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo detectors recorded an unknown or unanticipated "burst" of gravitational waves on Jan. 14.
The gravitational waves we've detected so far usually relate to extreme cosmic events, like two black holes colliding or neutron stars finally merging after being caught in a death spiral. Burst gravitational waves have not been detected before and scientists hypothesize they may be linked to phenomena such as supernova or gamma ray bursts, producing a tiny "pop" when detected by the observatories.
This unanticipated burst has been dubbed, for now, S200114f, and was detected by the software that helped confirm the first detection of gravitational waves.
[...] Astronomers have already swung their telescopes to the interesting portion of the sky, listening in across different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum for a whisper of what might have occurred.
Previously:
LIGO Observes Lower Mass Black Hole Collision
First Joint Detection of Gravitational Waves by LIGO and Virgo
LIGO May Have Detected Merging Neutron Stars for the First Time
GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2
Europe's "Virgo" Gravitational Wave Detector Suffers From "Microcracks"
LIGO Black Hole Echoes Hint at General-Relativity Breakdown
LIGO Data Probes Where General Relativity Might Break Down
Did the LIGO Gravitational Wave Detector Find Dark Matter?
Second Detection of Gravitational Waves Announced by LIGO
(Score: 2) by D2 on Friday January 17 2020, @07:37AM (1 child)
I don't see predictions. By all means, link to a valid set of predictions for earthquakes.
I also see lots of hypotheses. I also see silly stuff, like declaring human error in time measurements (when such data is recorded in a way that doesn't involve human error, and can be reexamined). Or the hypothesis that cosmic gamma rays from gravitational collapses millions of light years away cause earthquakes, rather than plate tectonics. Lots of "if..." and "assuming..."
Most to the point, googling shows not much since 2016. The LIGO and sibling sensors are picking up bursts, happening simultaneously enough to deny physical wave dynamics as a cause.
And there's no new discussion of this idea tied to the above activity. If prediction were effective, each detection would be coalescing and reinforcing this idea. You'd post it here, naturally. Silence, to me, means the idea isn't succeeding.
And that's the glory of the scientific method... if a hypothesis works, it builds our trust. No faith, no woo-woo. Just results.
So long, troll.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @04:33PM
So you still deny that there are geological events that can happen to influence all sites at about the same time? Sorry, but that is just dumb. It goes against all common sense.
Whether such events are common enough to explain what it setting off the detectors is another matter (and I bet no one knows), but to deny it can happen at all... No. I reject your assumption wholeheartedly.