Gravitational waves explained
On 11 February, scientists announced the discovery of gravitational waves. This discovery ushers in a new era in human understanding of our place in the universe.
In one of the biggest discoveries in the history of space science, scientists have directly detected gravitational waves, the ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein’s famous theory of general relativity in 1916.
Gravitational waves, in their most basic sense, are ripples in spacetime. These ripples carry gravitational energy away from accelerating massive objects in the cosmos. We can imagine gravitational waves as ripples across the surface of a pond; drop a pebble into the water and ripples travel across the surface away from the rock. Gravitational waves are similar; should two black holes collide (for example), “ripples” in spacetime will carry energy away from the impact site at the speed of light. There are indirect observations of the existence of gravitational waves, but detecting them directly has been an all but impossible task… until now.
