What the discovery of gravitational waves means | Allan Adams

Prevoditelj: Martina Juranic Recezent: Danijela Rako

1.3 billion years ago,

Prije 1,3 milijardu godina,

in a distant, distant galaxy,

u dalekoj, dalekoj galaksiji,

two black holes locked into a spiral,

dvije crne rupe zaplele su se u spiralu,

falling inexorably towards each other

nezaustavljivo se približavajući

and collided,

dok se nisu sudarile,

converting three Suns' worth of stuff

pretvarajući tvar mase triju sunca

into pure energy in a tenth of a second.

u čistu energiju u desetinki sekunde.

For that brief moment in time,

U tom kratkom trenutku u vremenu,

the glow was brighter than all the stars

sjaj je bio jači od svih zvijezda

in all the galaxies

u svim galaksijama

in all of the known Universe.

u cijelom svemiru koji poznajemo.

It was a very

To je bio vrlo

big

velik

bang.

prasak.

But they didn't release their energy in light.

Ali one nisu oslobodile svoju energiju u svjetlost.

I mean, you know, they're black holes.

Znate, ipak su to crne rupe.

All that energy was pumped into the fabric of space and time itself,

Sva ta energija izbačena je u spoj prostora i vremena,

making the Universe explode in gravitational waves.

uzrokujući eksplozije svemira u obliku gravitacijskih valova.

Let me give you a sense of the timescale at work here.

Dopustite mi da vam približim vremenski raspon ovoga.

1.3 billion years ago,

Prije 1,3 milijarde godina,

Earth had just managed to evolve multicellular life.

Zemlja je tek uspjela razviti višestanični život.

Since then, Earth has made and evolved

Od tada, Zemlja je stvorila i razvila

corals, fish, plants, dinosaurs, people and even -- God save us -- the Internet.

koralje, ribe, biljke, dinosaure, ljude i čak -- Bože pomozi -- Internet.

And about 25 years ago,

I prije otprilike 25 godina,

a particularly audacious set of people --

vrlo pametna grupa ljudi --

Rai Weiss at MIT, Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever at Caltech --

Rai Weiss s MIT-a, Kip Thorne i Ronald Drever sa Caltecha --

decided that it would be really neat

odlučili su da bi baš bilo dobro

to build a giant laser detector

sagraditi divovski laserski detektor

with which to search for the gravitational waves

s kojim bi mogli tražiti gravitacijske valove

from things like colliding black holes.

iz stvari poput sudarajućih crnih rupa.

Now, most people thought they were nuts.

Većina ljudi je mislila da su luđaci.

But enough people realized that they were brilliant nuts

Međutim, dovoljan broj ljudi je shvatio da su oni briljantni luđaci

that the US National Science Foundation decided to fund their crazy idea.

pa je Nacionalna zaklada SAD-a za znanost odlučila financirati njihovu ludu ideju.

So after decades of development,

Nakon desetljeća razvoja,

construction and imagination

izgradnje i mašte

and a breathtaking amount of hard work,

i nevjerojatne količine teškog rada,

they built their detector, called LIGO:

oni su sagradili detektor, nazvan LIGO:

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.

Lasersko-interferometrijski opservatorij za gravitacijske valove.

For the last several years,

Tijekom zadnjih par godina,

LIGO's been undergoing a huge expansion in its accuracy,

LIGO je doživio velike pomake u svojoj preciznosti,

a tremendous improvement in its detection ability.

ogroman napredak u sposobnosti detekcije.

It's now called Advanced LIGO as a result.

Kao rezultat, sada se zove Napredni LIGO.

In early September of 2015,

U rujnu 2015.

LIGO turned on for a final test run

LIGO je uključen za konačni test

while they sorted out a few lingering details.

dok se ne riješe par preostalih detalja.

And on September 14 of 2015,

I 14. rujna 2015.,

just days after the detector had gone live,

samo nekoliko dana nakon što je detektor uključen,

the gravitational waves from those colliding black holes

gravitacijski valovi iz tih sudarajućih crnih rupa

passed through the Earth.

prošli su kroz Zemlju.

And they passed through you and me.

Prošli su kroz vas i mene.

And they passed through the detector.

Prošli su kroz detektor.

(Audio) Scott Hughes: There's two moments in my life

(Audio) Scott Hughes: U mom životu bila su dva trenutka

more emotionally intense than that.

emocionalno intezivnija od ovog.

One is the birth of my daughter.

Jedan je rođenje moje kćerke.

The other is when I had to say goodbye to my father when he was terminally ill.

Drugi je kada sam morao reći zbogom mom ocu koji je bio teško bolestan.

You know, it was the payoff of my career, basically.

Znate, to je praktički isplata moje karijere.

Everything I'd been working on -- it's no longer science fiction! (Laughs)

Sve što sam radio više nije znanstvena fantastika! (Smijeh)

Allan Adams: So that's my very good friend and collaborator, Scott Hughes,

Allan Adams: To je bio moj vrlo dobar prijatelj i suradnik, Scott Hughes,

a theoretical physicist at MIT,

teoretski fizičar s MIT-a

who has been studying gravitational waves from black holes

koji proučava gravitacijske valove iz crnih rupa

and the signals that they could impart on observatories like LIGO,

i signale koje daju na opservatorijima poput LIGO-a

for the past 23 years.

posljednje 23 godine.

So let me take a moment to tell you what I mean by a gravitational wave.

Dajte mi trenutak da vam objasnim što je gravitacijski val.

A gravitational wave is a ripple

Gravitacijski val je nabor

in the shape of space and time.

u prostorno-vremenskom obliku.

As the wave passes by,

Kako val prolazi,

it stretches space and everything in it

rasteže prostor i sve u njemu

in one direction,

u jednom smjeru,

and compresses it in the other.

a zbija u drugom.

This has led to countless instructors of general relativity

To je dovelo do toga da mnogi predavači opće teorije relativnosti

doing a really silly dance to demonstrate in their classes on general relativity.

izvode smiješan ples kako bi svom razredu dočarali opću relativnost.

"It stretches and expands, it stretches and expands."

"Rasteže se i širi, rasteže i širi."

So the trouble with gravitational waves

Problem s gravitacijskim valovima

is that they're very weak; they're preposterously weak.

jest da su vrlo slabi, apsurdno slabi.

For example, the waves that hit us on September 14 --

Na primjer, valovi koji su nas pogodili 14. rujna --

and yes, every single one of you stretched and compressed

i da, svaki od vas se rastegnuo i sažeo

under the action of that wave --

uslijed djelovanja tih valova --

when the waves hit, they stretched the average person

kada su valovi prošli, rastegli su prosječnu osobu

by one part in 10 to the 21.

deset na minus dvadeset i prvu.

That's a decimal place, 20 zeroes,

To je 20 nula iza decimalne točke

and a one.

i onda 1.

That's why everyone thought the LIGO people were nuts.

Zato su svi mislili da su ljudi iz LIGO-a luđaci.

Even with a laser detector five kilometers long -- and that's already crazy --

Čak i s laserskim detektorom dugim pet kilometra -- a to je već ludo --

they would have to measure the length of those detectors

trebali bi izmjeriti duljinu tih detektora

to less than one thousandth of the radius of the nucleus

na manje od tisućitog dijela promjera jezgre

of an atom.

atoma.

And that's preposterous.

A to je apsurdno.

So towards the end of his classic text on gravity,

Na kraju svog klasičnog teksta o gravitaciji,

LIGO co-founder Kip Thorne

LIGO suosnivač Kip Thorne

described the hunt for gravitational waves as follows:

opisao je potragu za gravitacijskim valovima na sljedeći način:

He said, "The technical difficulties to be surmounted

Rekao je, "Tehničke poteškoće koje treba nadvladati

in constructing such detectors

u izgradnji takvih detektora

are enormous.

su ogromne.

But physicists are ingenious,

Ali, fizičari su genijalni,

and with the support of a broad lay public,

i uz potporu šire javnosti,

all obstacles will surely be overcome."

sve prepreke ćemo sigurno predvladati."

Thorne published that in 1973,

Thorne je to objavio 1973.,

42 years before he succeeded.

42 godine prije nego je uspio.

Now, coming back to LIGO,

Sada, vratimo se na LIGO,

Scott likes to say that LIGO acts like an ear

Scott voli reći kako LIGO više radi kao uho

more than it does like an eye.

nego kao oko.

I want to explain what that means.

Želio bih objasniti što to znači.

Visible light has a wavelength, a size,

Vidljivo svjetlo ima valne duljine, veličinu

that's much smaller than the things around you,

koja je mnogo manja od stvari oko vas,

the features on people's faces,

poput obilježja na nečijem licu,

the size of your cell phone.

veličine vašeg mobitela.

And that's really useful,

I to je vrlo korisno

because it lets you make an image or a map of the things around you,

jer omogućuje stvaranje slike ili mapiranje stvari oko vas,

by looking at the light coming from different spots

gledajući svjetlo koje dolazi iz različitih točaka

in the scene about you.

u mjesto oko vas.

Sound is different.

Zvuk je drugačiji.

Audible sound has a wavelength that can be up to 50 feet long.

Čujni zvuk ima valnu duljinu koja može biti dugačka do 15 metara.

And that makes it really difficult --

I to otežava stvari --

in fact, in practical purposes, impossible -- to make an image

zapravo, u praktičnom smislu, nemoguće je -- napraviti sliku

of something you really care about.

nečega do čega ti je stalo.

Your child's face.

Lice vašeg djeteta.

Instead, we use sound to listen for features like pitch

Umjesto toga, koristimo zvuk da slušamo svojstva poput visine

and tone and rhythm and volume

i tona i ritma i volumena

to infer a story behind the sounds.

kako bi izveli zaključak o zvucima.

That's Alice talking.

To priča Alice.

That's Bob interrupting.

To Bob prekida.

Silly Bob.

Šašavi Bob.

So, the same is true of gravitational waves.

Isto vrijedi i za gravitacijske valove.

We can't use them to make simple images of things out in the Universe.

Ne možemo ih koristiti za stvaranje jednostavnih slika stvari iz svemira.

But by listening to changes

Ali, slušajući promjene

in the amplitude and frequency of those waves,

u amplitudi i frekvenciji tih valova,

we can hear the story that those waves are telling.

možemo čuti priču koju ti valovi pričaju.

And at least for LIGO,

Što se tiče LIGO-a,

the frequencies that it can hear are in the audio band.

on može čuti frekvencije u audio području.

So if we convert the wave patterns into pressure waves and air, into sound,

Ako pretvorimo valne obrasce u tlačne valove i zrak, u zvuk,

we can literally hear the Universe speaking to us.

doslovno možemo čuti kako nam svemir priča.

For example, listening to gravity, just in this way,

Na primjer, slušajući gravitaciju, na ovaj način,

can tell us a lot about the collision of two black holes,

možemo saznati mnogo o sudaru dviju crnih rupa,

something my colleague Scott has spent an awful lot of time thinking about.

nešto na čemu je moj kolega Scott proveo jako puno vremena razmišljajući.

(Audio) SH: If the two black holes are non-spinning,

(Audio) SH: Ako se dvije crne rupe ne okreću,

you get a very simple chirp: whoop!

dobijete vrlo jednostavan cvrkut: vuup!

If the two bodies are spinning very rapidly, I have that same chirp,

Ako se dva tijela brzo okreću, imamo isti cvrkut,

but with a modulation on top of it,

ali s modulacijom na vrhu

so it kind of goes: whir, whir, whir!

i otprilike zvuči: vr, vr, vr!

It's sort of the vocabulary of spin imprinted on this waveform.

To je rječnik vrtloga zapisan na ovom valnom obliku.

AA: So on September 14, 2015,

AA: I tako 14. rujna 2015.,

a date that's definitely going to live in my memory,

datum koji će zasigurno ostati u mom pamćenju,

LIGO heard this:

LIGO je čuo ovo:

[Whirring sound]

[Piskavi zvuk]

So if you know how to listen, that is the sound of --

Ako znate kako slušati, tada je to zvuk --

(Audio) SH: ... two black holes, each of about 30 solar masses,

(Audio) SH: ...dviju crnih rupa, svaka otprilike 30 masa sunaca,

that were whirling around at a rate

koje su se vitlale brzinom

comparable to what goes on in your blender.

usporedivom s onom u miješalici.

AA: It's worth pausing here to think about what that means.

AA: Vrijedi se zaustaviti ovdje kako bi razmislili što to znači.

Two black holes, the densest thing in the Universe,

Dvije crne rupe, najgušća tvar u Svemiru,

one with a mass of 29 Suns

jedna mase 29 sunaca

and one with a mass of 36 Suns,

i druga mase 36 sunaca,

whirling around each other 100 times per second

vrtjele su se jedna oko druge 100 puta u sekundi

before they collide.

prije nego li su se sudarile.

Just imagine the power of that.

Samo zamislite tu snagu.

It's fantastic.

To je fantastično.

And we know it because we heard it.

I mi to znamo zato što smo to čuli.

That's the lasting importance of LIGO.

To je trajna važnost LIGO-a.

It's an entirely new way to observe the Universe

To je jedan skroz novi način promatranja svemira

that we've never had before.

koji nikad prije nismo imali.

It's a way that lets us hear the Universe

To je način na koji čujemo svemir

and hear the invisible.

i čujemo nevidljivo.

And there's a lot out there that we can't see --

A tamo je mnogo toga što ne možemo vidjeti --

in practice or even in principle.

u praksi ili načelu.

So supernova, for example:

Supernova, na primjer:

I would love to know why very massive stars explode in supernovae.

volio bih znati kako vrlo masivne zvijezde eksplodiraju u supernove.

They're very useful;

Vrlo su korisne;

we've learned a lot about the Universe from them.

naučili smo puno o svemiru preko njih.

The problem is, all the interesting physics happens in the core,

Problem je što se sva zanimljiva fizika događa u jezgri,

and the core is hidden behind thousands of kilometers

a ona je skrivena pod tisućama kilometara

of iron and carbon and silicon.

željeza, ugljika i silicija.

We'll never see through it, it's opaque to light.

Ne vidimo kroz njih, oni su neprozirni za svjetlo.

Gravitational waves go through iron as if it were glass --

Gravitacijski valovi prolaze kroz željezo kao da su staklo --

totally transparent.

u potpunosti prozirni.

The Big Bang: I would love to be able to explore

Veliki prasak: volio bih istražiti

the first few moments of the Universe,

prve trenutke svemira,

but we'll never see them,

ali nikada ih nećemo vidjeti,

because the Big Bang itself is obscured by its own afterglow.

zato što je sam Veliki prasak zasjenjen vlastitim posljedičnim sjajem.

With gravitational waves,

Pomoću gravitacijskih valova,

we should be able to see all the way back to the beginning.

trebali bismo moći vidjeti sve do samog početka.

Perhaps most importantly,

Možda najvažnije,

I'm positive that there are things out there

siguran sam da su tamo stvari

that we've never seen

koje još nikada nismo vidjeli

that we may never be able to see

i koje možda nikada nećemo moći vidjeti

and that we haven't even imagined --

i koje čak ne možemo niti zamislili --

things that we'll only discover by listening.

stvari koje jedino možemo otkriti slušanjem.

And in fact, even in that very first event,

I zapravo, čak i prilikom tog prvog događaja,

LIGO found things that we didn't expect.

LIGO je našao stvari koje nismo očekivali.

Here's my colleague and one of the key members of the LIGO collaboration,

Ovdje je moj kolega i jedan od ključnih LIGO suradnika,

Matt Evans, my colleague at MIT, addressing exactly that:

Matt Evans, moj kolega s MIT-a, spominjajući upravo to:

(Audio) Matt Evans: The kinds of stars which produce the black holes

(Audio) Matt Evans: Tip zvijezda koje stvaraju crne rupe

that we observed here

uočene ovdje

are the dinosaurs of the Universe.

su svemirski dinosauri.

They're these massive things that are old, from prehistoric times,

To su masivni objekti koji su stari, iz prahistorijskog doba,

and the black holes are kind of like the dinosaur bones

a crne rupe su poput kosti dinosaura

with which we do this archeology.

s kojima radimo ovu arheologiju.

So it lets us really get a whole nother angle

Dakle, pogledajmo to iz sasvim novog kuta

on what's out there in the Universe

što sve postoji u svemiru

and how the stars came to be, and in the end, of course,

i kako su zvijezda postale, i na kraju, naravno,

how we came to be out of this whole mess.

kako smo mi nastali iz tog cijelog nereda.

AA: Our challenge now

AA: Naš izazov sada

is to be as audacious as possible.

jest da budemo što više smioni.

Thanks to LIGO, we know how to build exquisite detectors

Zahvaljujući LIGU, sada možemo sagraditi izvrsne detektore

that can listen to the Universe,

koji mogu slušati svemir,

to the rustle and the chirp of the cosmos.

šuštanje i piskutanje kozmosa.

Our job is to dream up and build new observatories --

Naš je posao da izmislimo i sagradimo nove opservatorije --

a whole new generation of observatories --

cijelu novu generaciju opservatorija --

on the ground, in space.

na zemlji i u svemiru.

I mean, what could be more glorious than listening to the Big Bang itself?

Mislim, što može biti sjajnije od slušanja samog Velikog praska?

Our job now is to dream big.

Naš posao je sanjati velike snove.

Dream with us.

Sanjajte s nama.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)