The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics are shared by three scientists, announced the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Tuesday.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 was divided, with one half awarded to Rainer Weiss, the other half jointly to Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves."

Olga Botner, a member of the Nobel Physics Committee, explained at the press conference that, "We know the gravitational waves existed, but it's the first time to find them."

There were two black holes which once clashed in the universe and the gravitational waves reached the earth after 1.3 billion years' of traveling. They were detected on Sept. 14, 2015 by the LIGO detector in the U.S., Botner further explained.

Gravitational waves are ripples in space and time predicted by Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity in 1916. It can be explained as the influence to the universe by objects when they move with acceleration. To put is simply, the waves can be imagined as water waves created by objects moving in water.

"What they found is that there are black holes which are very heavy objects, you know tens of the solar masses. But they are black holes, you can see they are very very compact. But they can collide you know, they can merge into two. And that is very cataclysmic reaction. When that happens, then the amount of gravitational waves to send out is enormously much bigger than you know, when ordinary clashes do. So that means that you can have a chance of measuring that. What these laureates realized, way back, was that it would be possible to measure this with only the right kind of equipment. So they have been building up this equipment for 40 years, improving it all the time. And by doing that, they eventually you know reach such good measuring operators," said Lars Brink, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and former head of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

Gravitational waves can pass through any intervening matter without being scattered significantly, therefore they carry information about the objects producing them. This allows humans to intercept data and analyze the universe in a totally new way.

LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is a collaborative project with over 1,000 researchers from more than 20 countries. Together, they have realized a vision that is almost 50 years old, said a statement released by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

So far, all sorts of electromagnetic radiation and particles, such as cosmic rays or neutrinos, have been used to explore the universe. However, gravitational waves are direct testimony to disruptions in spacetime itself. This is something completely new and different, opening up unseen worlds, the statement said.

Rainer Weiss, born 1932 in Berlin, Germany, is a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the United States.

Barry C. Barish, born 1936 in Omaha, the United States, is Linde professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology.

Kip S. Thorne, born 1940 in Logan, the United States, is Feynman professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology. He is also the science advisor and executive producer of Christopher Nolan's movie Interstellar.

This year's prize is nine million SEK (1.1 million U.S. dollars), with one half going to Rainer Weiss, and the other half to Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne.
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