Recently, scientists observed the merger of giant ‘blackholes’ billion

Recently, scientists observed the merger of giant ‘blackholes’ billions of lightyears away from the Earth. What is the significance of this observation?

Higgs boson particles' were detected.
'Gravitational waves' were detected.
Possibility of inter-galactic space travel through 'wormhole' was confirmed.
It enabled the scientists to understand 'singularity'.
This question was previously asked in
UPSC IAS – 2019
The correct option is B. The observation of the merger of giant black holes billions of lightyears away from Earth led to the first direct detection of gravitational waves.
Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime caused by accelerating massive objects. Highly energetic events like the merger of black holes or neutron stars are strong sources of gravitational waves.
The LIGO and Virgo collaborations detected the first direct evidence of gravitational waves in 2015 (event GW150914), which originated from the merger of two black holes. This observation was a landmark discovery, confirming a major prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity and opening a new window for observing the universe through gravitational wave astronomy.
A) Higgs boson particles were detected at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, which is unrelated to black hole mergers.
C) While black holes and general relativity are related to the concept of wormholes, the detection of gravitational waves from a merger does not confirm the possibility of inter-galactic space travel through wormholes.
D) Observing black hole mergers and the resulting gravitational waves provides insights into the nature of gravity in extreme conditions, but it does not directly enable scientists to understand the singularity at the heart of a black hole, which remains a theoretical concept under current physics.
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