Enthusiasm on Gravitational Waves

Some Japanese newspapers reported historical detection of gravitational waves by an American research institute as the top story with huge headlines on Friday, while others could not realized what the finding meant. TVs tried to explain the significance of the achievement using panels with colored drawings and charts. Although it was a result of long-time study and experiment of the international scientists in United States, Japanese media reported as an achievement of Japan, too.

“First Observation of Gravitational Waves” was the common headline for top stories of Mainichi and Yomiuri Shimbun. They reported that an international experiment team in a university in U.S., called LIGO, had successfully observed gravitational waves produced in unification of two black holes. The phenomenon was explained as happening when extremely heavy body such as black hole moved, causing moves of time stream or space around.

The existence of gravitational waves was predicted by legendary physicist, Albert Einstein, and the proving it has been called “the last homework from Einstein.” Observation of gravitational waves reconfirmed the rightness of his general theory of relativity, which analyzed gravity or structure of time and space. It is expected that the finding will be helpful for researching the shape of invisible celestial body or space in the state of newly born.

The observation was too big for media to explain its significance. “It is worth Nobel Prize” was a typical explanation. But, some argued that the achievement could not be evaluated by how many Nobel Prizes would worth. Unfortunately, Nobel Prize was only a scale for most Japanese to evaluate it. Anyway, it was surely a historical achievement, opening new page of physics.

Proud of past winners in Nobel Prize in Physics, Japan had to connect the finding to the nation. Japan has a facility for observing gravitational waves, called KAGRA, the project led by a Nobel Prize laureate, Takaaki Kajita. In the press conference, reporters asked Kajita whether he regretted about losing in the race. “I am delighted with a possibility that we can study new astronomy taking advantage of gravitational waves,” answered Kajita.

For scientists, observation of gravitational waves was new chance for their studies. But, the significance could not understood by Japanese media, which was always trying to be down to earth.