Albert Einstein predicted the existence of these gravitational waves in 1916 in his general theory of relativity, but only since the 1990s has technology become powerful enough to permit detecting them and harnessing them for science. Scientists therefore have great confidence that gravitational waves exist. Joseph Taylor and Russel Hulse were awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of this binary pulsar. LIGO will be used for research into the nature of gravity, and it will open up an entirely new window onto the universe. It will thus be a scientific tool both for physics and for astronomy.
General relativity describes gravity as a manifestation of the curvature of space-time.
This description has been tested and proved correct in the solar system, where gravity is weak and changes slowly due to the orbital motions of planets and their satellites. Firmly verify that black holes exist, and test general relativity's predictions for the violently pulsating space-time curvature accompanying the collision of two black holes. This will be the most stringent test ever of Einstein's general relativity theory. Almost all our present information about the distant universe comes from electromagnetic waves. In the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s the march of technology made possible radio telescopes, infrared telescopes, and x-ray telescopes, which look at cosmic electromagnetic waves that have wavelengths different from light.