[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2240]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CONGRATULATIONS TO THE LIGO TEAM

  (Mr. NEWHOUSE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. NEWHOUSE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the efforts 
behind an incredible breakthrough in humanity's understanding of the 
universe: the first detection ever of the existence of gravitational 
waves.
  Gravitational waves are invisible ripples in the fabric of space-
time. Albert Einstein theorized their existence 100 years ago as part 
of his theory of general relativity.
  After more than a decade of work by researchers at two identical 
observatories--one in Livingston, Louisiana, and another in Hanford, 
Washington, located in my congressional district--Einstein's theory of 
the existence of gravitational waves has direct evidence as scientific 
fact.
  On February 11, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave 
Observatory, or LIGO, Scientific Collaboration officially confirmed 
that the world's most sensitive instruments at these observatories had 
detected gravitational waves for the first time. The gravitational wave 
detected by LIGO's team was the result of the collision of two black 
holes 1.3 billion years ago.
  Congratulations to my constituents and the entire LIGO team on their 
historic discovery, which will continue to add to the scientific 
understanding of the universe for generations.

                          ____________________