7 mind-blowing facts about gravitational waves, the 100-year-old prediction just confirmed by scientists

On Thursday, a team of scientists announced that they had detected a phenomenon called gravitational waves for the first time.

Rumors are circulating that the discovery is worthy of the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics because it gives humans a new way to study our universe.

These waves are ripples that contract and expand the space-time around them. Scientists detected them by measuring this distortion as one of these waves passed through Earth using the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

But doing so was extremely difficult, and what scientists discovered upon detecting these waves was nothing short of extraordinary. Check out some mind-boggling facts about them and this latest discovery:

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Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago. It's taken that long for our technology to catch up to his brilliance and confirm his theory.

Scientists suspect that two merging black holes emit more energy in the form of gravitational waves in the last few minutes before they collide than a single star emits over billions of years.

Gravitational waves contract and expand the fabric of space-time, but by only a small amount. The LIGO instruments (one shown below) are designed to detect a distortion that is 1 million times smaller than the width of a hydrogen atom.