Beyond the heavens

The scientifically minded and the scientifically challenged both paused last month to contemplate the far reaches of the cosmos. Scientists at the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory reported that they had detected gravitational waves emanating from the collision of two black holes—places of such heavy gravity that even light cannot escape. These waves, generated a billion light-years away, had the effect of altering, if infinitesimally, earth’s space-time continuum. The discovery was the result of a century of collaborative research that began with Albert Einstein and, in recent years, drew on $0.5 billion in U.S. government funding.

Almost as staggering as thinking about a gravitational event in an unimaginably distant part of the cosmos is the scientific capacity to postulate its existence and verify its occurrence. Observatories 1,900 miles apart in Louisiana and Washington were able to record the different arrival times of the gravitational waves and thereby locate their source.

Einstein remarked that “the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.” The universe discloses itself by way of physical theorems and mathematical formulas. In some fashion, the universe wishes to be known; it allows a creature that is part of that very universe to learn some of its language.