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The Nature of Gravitational Waves

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Space, Black holes, Supernovas, Planets, what do they all have in common?


Gravity, more specifically gravitational waves. Typically, you would search it up on google which would give you the generic answer:


What are they? Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity that are generated by the accelerated masses of binary stars and other motions of gravitating masses and propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. In simpler words, they are ripples in space-time caused by accelerating massive objects (fast-paced huge objects in space) like black holes and neutron stars. These ripples are detected using ultra-sensitive interferometers due to their minuscule effect on space-time, which is smaller than an atom's nucleus by the time they reach Earth. (An atom's nucleus is like a pea in the middle of a racetrack, while an atom is 10‎ ‎000‎ ‎000 times smaller than a single grain of sand, tiny I know).





When and who discovered gravitational waves, and yes discovered because since it is already something that has existed in our universe before we came around, we discovered it instead of invented it. So back to the question of discovery, in the 1970s and 80s, Joseph Taylor, Jr., and colleagues. Taylor and Russell Hulse discovered the Hulse-Taylor pulsar, known as PSR B1913+16, is the first binary pulsar discovered, pivotal for confirming Einstein's predictions about gravitational waves in 1974. They were directly observed in 2015 by LIGO, confirming their existence.



Huh? Well, gravitational waves have revolutionized our understanding of the universe. They allow us to observe cosmic events that are otherwise invisible, such as the merging of black holes and neutron stars. These observations provide invaluable insights into the behavior of matter and energy under extreme conditions, enhancing our comprehension of fundamental physics and the cosmos. Now, all of this is really interesting, but you might be wondering what a binary pulsar is(and all the other big scary words that you find in spelling bees), well that you will find out next time.



References:

LIGO Caltech. (n.d.). What are gravitational waves? LIGO Caltech. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-are-gw

NASA. (n.d.). Gravitational waves. NASA Space Place. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/gravitational-waves/en/



-Authored by: Bareera Mirza from The Eunolia.





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Bareera Mirza
Bareera Mirza
Sep 18, 2024

So I kinda wrote this

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