VIDEO 3:03: Stephen Hawking congratulated the Advanced LIGO Team for their detection of gravitational waves.

If one had to choose which 2015 astronomical discovery was of most importance to the field of astrophysics, it would appear that the detection of gravitational waves would take precedence. This discovery is said to have proven the last unproven theorem of Einstein’s General Relativity, but also validates the work of astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who has proposed the existence of singularities (black holes), and the theory of the universe’s beginning as a “big bang.”

In the following video, Stephen Hawking explains the importance of the detection of gravitational waves.

For a brief comparison of gravitational and electromagnetic waves and compatible types of astronomy, visit the next page.