Correct answer: (b) ‘Gravitational waves’ were detected.
Explanation
- A
‘Higgs boson particles’ were detected.
(a) Higgs boson particles were detected at the LHC in 2012, not by watching distant black-hole mergers. Not the key.
- B
‘Gravitational waves’ were detected.
(b) Gravitational waves. LIGO’s 2015 (announced 2016) detection, and later events, were from merging black holes billions of light-years away. That is the official key.
- C
Possibility of inter-galactic space travel through ‘wormhole’ was confirmed.
(c) Wormhole inter-galactic travel was not confirmed by those observations. Not the key.
- D
It enabled the scientists to understand ‘singularity’.
(d) Singularity inside a black hole remains a theoretical region; merger detections do not “enable understanding of singularity” as the keyed significance. Not the key.
Summary. Official key is (b). Binary black-hole mergers are the source of the gravitational waves LIGO/Virgo detected. Higgs, wormholes and singularity are other physics stories. Honour (b).
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