NASA Achieves Breakthrough Black Hole Simulation

DoctorBit writes "NASA scientists have achieved a breakthrough in simulating the merging of two same-size non-spinning black holes based on a new translation of Einstein's general relativity equations. The scientists accomplished the feat by using some brand-new tensor calculus translations on the Linux-running, 10,240 Itanium processor SGI Altix Columbia supercomputer. These are reportedly the largest astrophysical calculations ever performed on a NASA supercomputer. According to NASA's Chief Scientist, "Now when we observe a black hole merger with LIGO or LISA, we can test Einstein's theory and see whether or not he was right.""

Comments

Are they really testing what they think?

[HiddenL]

Now when we observe a black hole merger with LIGO or LISA, we can test Einstein's theory and see whether or not he was right.

More likely: Whether or not the equations used are a correct approximation for Einstein's equations.

And even more likely: Whether or not the computers performed the calculations correctly (the chips are made from Intel, and we all know the history of Intel screwing up floating point math)

Re:Wasted funding?

[hswerdfe]

What is the actual outcome from this research?
more knowledge about the universe and how it might work.

Will this help create more energy-efficiency in the world?
maybe, who can say what future developments and understanding of this area of physics will bring.

Will it help us find technology that humanity can actually use to make a better society?
maybe, see above. it depends on the definition of "better".
when general relativity was first thought of in 1915 there was no application, for the average person. today GPS relies on general relativity.

Will it increase our safety, or decrease power of madmen and dictators?
the obvious answer is probably not. and while these are important questions, this one is not topical in this discussion.