GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

By -

merging neutron star's are major sources of gravitational waves

As the name implies, Gravity is the major cause of this phenomenon. So before we get down to this, we must acquire some basic facts about Gravity. First of all, you need to understand that gravity is not just a kind of force, but a curvature in Space time (Fusion of three dimensional space and the one dimension of time into a four dimensional manifold). Our entire universe is spread out by Space time like a rubber sheet. So all of the Celestial objects like Planets, Stars, Galaxies and black holes etc are kind of floating on this Space time fibre. These massive objects cause Space time curvature. Thus Gravitational waves are the disturbances in the curvature of Space time generated by accelerated massive objects, that propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. 
Gravitational wave spectrum: Wikipedia

Early in 1915 it was predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. The first direct observation of Gravitational waves was made on 14th September 2015. That was announced by the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) and VIRGO collaborations on 11 February 2016. These Gravitational Waves happened when two Black holes crashed into one another. The collision happened about 1.3 billion years ago.The Gravitational waves can penetrate regions of space that electromagnetic waves cannot. 

In principle, Gravitational waves could exist at any frequency. Detecting and analysing the information carried by Gravitational waves is allowing us to observe the Universe in a way never possible before. Surely it will be a door to the kind of truth that will stir our minds. 

Science can make weird things sound absolutely normal and vice versa. Have a nice day all.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SCHRODINGER'S CAT

By -
Image
  Nothing explains the state of " Quantum Superposition " as brilliantly as the Erwin Schrodinger's famous thought experiment :  " The Schrodinger's Cat " .  Although at times regarded as a Paradox, this thought experiment was devised to point out the errors in the Copenhagen Interpretation   of Quantum Mechanics , which suggested that " a particle exists at all states at once until observed ".    In this hypothetical scenario a cat is kept in a sealed chamber along with a Geiger counter ( an instrument for detecting and measuring ionising radiation) a radioactive sample and a bottle of poison. If the Geiger counter detects ionising radiation due to decay of radioactive sample, then the bottle of poison will break and the cat will die. Now Radioactivity is a " Spontaneous"  phenomenon meaning there is only a probability for the sample to undergo decay. Since the chamber is sealed we can't know for sure whether the cat is alive or de...
Read more

WORM HOLES

By -
Image
Most of us are familiar with the fancy scientific term " Worm hole " through movies or YouTube videos. It's bizarre physics and potential for manipulating " Space " and " Time " is what we are interested in. However, like most scientific phenomena, most of us have a pretty vague or partial understanding about how a wormhole works. For instance, the image posted along with this post is what many of us thinks a wormhole might look like. But in reality, a wormhole, if it exists, would be spherical rather than a circular tunnel . This is because we experience space as a 3 dimensional entity ( 3 D ). Movies like " Interstellar " could shed some light on the appearance of worm holes.A wormhole is also called an " Einstein-Rosen Bridge ". A wormhole visualised in 2-D: Wikipedia A wormhole can be seen as a tunnel having two ends which connects two different points in" Space-Time " (different location,different points in time, or b...
Read more