The Science of Monday’s Big “Gravitational Wave” Thing Explained in Two Minutes

On Monday, a group of scientists led by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics' John Kovac announced that they'd indirectly detected evidence of gravitational waves. If confirmed, the find would be a huge sign that the Big Bang actually happened, and that our universe is expanding. Smithsonian's Joseph Stromberg wrote about the news on Monday, saying that, if everything checks out, the work is one of the most important finds in physics in decades and likely a shoe-in for a Nobel Prize.

Cosmology, though, is super confusing. It's not an easy field to just drop in to and figure out what's going on. If you felt a bit lost amid all the excitement, the video above, by Minute Physics, may do just the trick. In the video Henry Reich walks through the science behind the discovery, starting with the basics—the polarization of light—and building up to the new bit—the potential detection of gravitational waves.

Colin Schultz | | READ MORE

Colin Schultz is a freelance science writer and editor based in Toronto, Canada. He blogs for Smart News and contributes to the American Geophysical Union. He has a B.Sc. in physical science and philosophy, and a M.A. in journalism.