A gravitational wave is an imperceptible yet incredibly swift ripple in space. These waves travel at the speed of light and can stretch and squeeze anything that comes in their way.
History Of The Concept
We have known about
gravitational waves for more than 100 years when a great scientist named Albert
Einstein shook the world of science with new ideas of space and time. He
predicted that something extraordinary happens when any two bodies in space,
orbit around each other, they produce a ripple effect in the space-time fabric.
These ripples are known as gravitational
waves. A gravitational wave is an imperceptible yet incredibly swift
ripple in space. These waves travel at the speed of light and can stretch and
squeeze anything that comes in their way.
What Causes Gravitational
Waves?
When two bodies in space move
at very high speeds, the most powerful gravitational waves are created.
Gravitational waves can be created:
1. An asymmetrical explosion
of a star, supernova. supernova is the violent death of a huge star that
releases a tremendous amount of energy and can cause ripples in the fabric of
space-time.
2. When two huge stars orbit
each other. such as neutron stars, red giant stars, or blue giant stars. when
these stars orbit each other, they can cause the disturbance of space-time
around them and can cause the ripples of gravitational waves to rise.
3. When two black holes orbit
each other and then merge. Black holes are the monsters of the universe. with a
mass, more than 20 times the mass of the sun, the merging of black holes can
release the most powerful gravitational waves.
But such events take place
very far in space and when these gravitational waves reach Earth, they have
become very weak. Thus, gravitational waves are hard to detect.
How Do We Know That Gravitational
Waves Exist?
Gravitational waves were
first detected by scientists in 2015, with the help of LIGO (Laser
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory). These gravitational waves were
a result of the merging of two black holes around 1.3 billion years ago. The
merging takes place 1.3 billion years ago and thus it took the same amount of
time for the waves to reach earth.
How Are Gravitational
Waves Detected?
Gravitational waves are known to squeeze and stretch space and LIGO measures the same squeezing and stretching of space for its detection of gravitational waves. Each LIGO observatory has two “arms” that are more than 2 miles (4 kilometers) long.
A
passing gravitational wave causes the change in length of the arm and with the
help of mirrors, lasers, and extremely sensitive instruments LIGO detects these
changes.
Written by - Yatin
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