THE 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics has been won by a ‘black-hole telescope’ a group of Mallorca scientists worked on.
US boffins Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne scooped the world’s most prestigious science award after detecting gravitational waves with their LIGO telescope.
Is is believed the waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago, may give clues to the world’s origin.
Physicists from the University of the Balearic Islands, led by Alícia Sintes and Sascha Husa, participated in the project to build the LIGO.
It was the only Spanish team that participated in the project from the start, joining 1,000 scientists from 20 countries around the world over four decades.
The telescope ‘promises a revolution in astrophysics’, said the Nobel panel of judges.
IGO can pick up gravitational waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago.
The waves are ripples in space fabric caused by violent episodes in the universe, with the LIGO telescope able to look into black holes.