GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

 Gravitational waves are ‘ripples’ in space-time caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the Universe. Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916 in his general theory of relativity. Einstein’s mathematics showed that massive accelerating objects (things like neutron stars or black holes orbiting each other) would disrupt space-time in such a way that ‘waves’ of undulating space-time would propagate in all directions away from the source. These cosmic ripples would travel at the speed of light, carrying with them information about their origins, as well as clues to the nature of gravity itself.

SOURCES OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

 High energy events like

Colliding black hole

Orbiting binary neutron stars

Supernovae explosions etc

DETECTION

On September 14, 2015 LIGO(instrument in washington) physically sensed the undulations in spacetime caused by  gravitational  waves  generated  by  two colliding black holes 1.3 billion light-years away. LIGO’s first  detection  will  go down in history as one of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements.