Recently, scientists observed the merger of giant 'blackholes' billions of light-years away from the Earth. What is the significance of this observation?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) 'Gravitational waves' were detected.
The merger of two black holes was significant because it produced gravitational waves, ripples in space-time that scientists detected directly for the first time on 14 September 2015 using the LIGO detectors. The waves, predicted by Einstein a hundred years earlier, travelled for 1.3 billion years before reaching Earth.
- ✓ (b) The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 press release says the first observed gravitational waves came from a collision between two black holes. An Indian team was part of the group that announced the discovery in 2016.
- ✗ (c) NASA states that black holes do not provide shortcuts between different points in space, so nothing about travel through wormholes was confirmed.
- ✗ (a) The Higgs boson is a particle searched for in particle-physics experiments; the black-hole merger observation was about gravitational waves, not that particle.
- ✗ (d) The observation is remembered for detecting gravitational waves, not for explaining the 'singularity' inside a black hole.
Remember · First direct detection of gravitational waves (LIGO, 14 September 2015): two black holes merging about 1.3 billion light-years away; Nobel Prize in Physics 2017.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Part I, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 11 · Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Part I, Chapter 5 “A team of Indian Scientists was a part of the group which announced in 2016, the discovery of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein.”
- The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017, press release (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) ↗ “On 14 September 2015, the universe’s gravitational waves were observed for the very first time. The waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein a hundred years ago, came from a collision between two black holes.”
- NASA Science, Black Holes ↗ “They don’t provide shortcuts between different points in space, or portals to other dimensions or universes.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·