The three scientists “made decisive contributions to the LIGO detector,” an observatory instrument that detects the waves.
The strongest gravitational waves are produced by catastrophic events, such as colliding black holes.
Gravitational waves are “ripples” in the fabric of space-time caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe, according to California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Albert Einstein in 1916 said he believed that gravitational waves existed when he developed his theory of relativity, but scientists only had physical proof of them when LIGO was developed.
The award was given half to Weiss from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the other half jointly to Barish and Thorne from Caltech.
