For Space Geeks: Detecting Gravitational Waves

YosemiteSam

Unfriendly and Aloof!
Messages
45,858
Reaction score
22,194
CowboysZone LOYAL Fan
Awesome blog post over at Scienceblogs.com

There are lots of images and much more posted explaining a lot of cool stuff. Definitely click the link if you are interested in understanding gravitational waves and detecting them.

===================================

A Spectacular Chance for Gravitational Waves

One of the most spectacular and successful ideas of the 20th Century was Einstein’s General Relativity, or the idea that matter and energy determines the curvature of spacetime, and the curvature of spacetime in turn determines how gravitation works.

From the orbits of planets to the bending of starlight, General Relativity governs all gravitational phenomena in the Universe, and accurately describes every observation we’ve ever made.

And the more concentrated energy is — in any form — in a given region of spacetime, the more severe the curvature that results. This means that if we can probe systems that are more extreme than we find in our own Solar System, we can potentially observe some aspects of General Relativity that are only theoretical predictions at this time.

Complete Story
 
Top