Have Scientists Discovered Gravitational Waves?

If you've ever watched an episode of Star Trek, you've heard the term "gravitational Waves" before.  They are a big part of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, and he predicted their existence back in 1916.  The problem is we've never been able to confirm their existence, they are still just theoretical.  That may (or may not) be changing soon.

First off, I had to actually look up what gravitational waves really were, not just rely on my Star Trek knowledge.  Okay, I really didn't have to look that far, it was in the article that I was reading (and I hate to admit this, but I found the article on Yahoo).  Here's what they said about gravitational waves:

"According to his (Einstein) theory of general relativity, a number of incredibly powerful cosmic systems across the universe will generate measurable ripples in the fabric of space-time called gravitational waves.

One example is two black holes orbiting one another that are eventually destined to collide.
When a smaller black hole meets a larger one, the two attract one another through tremendous gravitational forces. As the smaller black hole inches toward its inevitable doom, is accelerates through space at an ever-increasing rate toward the larger black hole, and, in so doing, generates gravitational waves."

They also pointed out that to this day, there has been no confirmation for astronomers that gravitational waves exist through direct, observational evidence.  So then why am I bringing all of this up?

This past Monday, theoretical physicist Laurence Krauss suggested that researchers might have detected these gravitational waves for the first time.  At this point, the idea that they've been discovered has yet to be confirmed, and there is no evidence that has been released to prove otherwise.

The researchers that Krauss refer to work at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO for short.  Spokesperson and Louisiana State University physics and astronomy professor Gabriela Gonzales gave the following statement:

"We are still taking data, and we won't finish analyzing and reviewing results until at least a month or two later.  The instruments are working great, but ... I don't have any news with analysis results to share, yet."

At one point, scientists thought that they had discovered them before, but their data was later disproven.  Because of that, all data from LIGO will be checked, and then double checked before being released into the scientific community. If it proves to be accurate, though, it will revolutionize astronomy as we know it today.