Gravitational Waves
By Chris Anderson
Gravitational Waves
Gravitational are a type of wave that we have known about for a while but it was only a theory. But recently scientists have proved that existence of them. Gravitational waves are invisible yet very fast waves. They're created when objects in space orbit each other. The go out from an object like how ripples go out in a pond. The most powerful waves are created when a star goes super/hyper nova, when two massive stars orbit each other, and when two blacks orbit each other and merge. The concept of gravitational waves was thought up by the one and only Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity.
How Do We Detect Gravitational Waves?
Scientists first detected gravitational waves in 2015 using a LIGO (Laser interferometer Gravitation-Wave Observatory. The detect a wave that was created when 2 black holes collided with each other that was made 1.3 billion years ago. When a gravitational wave passes by Earth, it squeezes and stretches space. LIGO can detect this squeezing and stretching. Each LIGO observatory has two “arms” that are each more than 2 miles (4 kilometers) long. A passing gravitational wave causes the length of the arms to change slightly. The observatory uses lasers, mirrors, and extremely sensitive instruments to detect these tiny changes. This is an animation on how the detection works.
Next Steps
For gravitational waves scientists have been setting up more and more LIGO's around the planet and they hope to detect more and more as the years go on. This is because gravitational waves tell us a lot about our universe and what happened before we were here. Like on that was detected in early 2017 that was from 2.3 billion years ago from a star going supernova. That event and the subsequent nebula it left behind actually gave birth to our own sun. So i hope now you an see that they have a huge effect on our knowledge about space.
Gravitational Waves
Gravitational are a type of wave that we have known about for a while but it was only a theory. But recently scientists have proved that existence of them. Gravitational waves are invisible yet very fast waves. They're created when objects in space orbit each other. The go out from an object like how ripples go out in a pond. The most powerful waves are created when a star goes super/hyper nova, when two massive stars orbit each other, and when two blacks orbit each other and merge. The concept of gravitational waves was thought up by the one and only Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity.
How Do We Detect Gravitational Waves?
Scientists first detected gravitational waves in 2015 using a LIGO (Laser interferometer Gravitation-Wave Observatory. The detect a wave that was created when 2 black holes collided with each other that was made 1.3 billion years ago. When a gravitational wave passes by Earth, it squeezes and stretches space. LIGO can detect this squeezing and stretching. Each LIGO observatory has two “arms” that are each more than 2 miles (4 kilometers) long. A passing gravitational wave causes the length of the arms to change slightly. The observatory uses lasers, mirrors, and extremely sensitive instruments to detect these tiny changes. This is an animation on how the detection works.
Next Steps
For gravitational waves scientists have been setting up more and more LIGO's around the planet and they hope to detect more and more as the years go on. This is because gravitational waves tell us a lot about our universe and what happened before we were here. Like on that was detected in early 2017 that was from 2.3 billion years ago from a star going supernova. That event and the subsequent nebula it left behind actually gave birth to our own sun. So i hope now you an see that they have a huge effect on our knowledge about space.
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