- "They were first proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1893 and then later by Henri Poincaré in 1905..."
Ripples in the curvature of space-time caused by the acceleration of massive objects, propagating as waves through the universe.
Special Relativity: The theory of special relativity is defined as the study of the laws of physics as observed by different observers in different motion situations.
General Relativity: The theory of general relativity goes beyond the physics of special relativity for studying the laws of physics and the properties of space and time.
Albert Einstein: The person who developed the theory of relativity.
Black holes: A region of space-time exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing not even light can escape from its boundaries.
Neutron stars: A type of star that is incredibly dense and made almost entirely of neutrons.
Binary systems: A system made up of two objects in close proximity, such as two orbiting stars.
Inertia tensors: A mathematical object that describes the rotational behavior of a system.
Cosmic microwave background radiation: The afterglow of the big bang, which provides valuable information on the properties of the universe.
Gravitational waves: Ripples in space-time caused by the accelerations of massive objects, such as binary systems or collapsing stars.
Interferometric detectors: Tools used to detect the incredibly small vibrations caused by gravitational waves by measuring the changes in the lengths of two perpendicular arms.
Numerical relativity: The use of computers to solve the equations of general relativity.
Astrophysics: The study of the properties and behavior of celestial objects.
Relativistic astrophysics: The study of astrophysical phenomena that require general relativistic treatment, such as black holes, neutron stars, and gravitational waves.
Quantum gravity: The study of the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Gravitational lensing: The bending of light rays by massive objects, which can be used to infer properties of the object or the intervening matter.
Strong field gravity: The study of the behavior of spacetime in the presence of strong gravitational fields, such as those near black holes.
Cosmology: The study of the origins, large scale structure, and evolution of the universe.
Dark matter: Matter that cannot be detected via electromagnetic radiation.
Dark energy: A hypothetical form of energy that is thought to drive the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.
Continuous gravitational waves: These types of gravitational waves are generated by rotating or asymmetric objects, such as a neutron star or a binary black hole system.
Compact binary coalescence gravitational waves: These types of gravitational waves are generated by the merging of two massive objects, such as neutron stars or black holes.
- "Gravitational waves were later predicted in 1916 by Albert Einstein..."
- "Gravitational waves...propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light."
- "Gravitational waves transport energy as gravitational radiation, a form of radiant energy similar to electromagnetic radiation."
- "...Newton's law of universal gravitation...does not provide for their existence, since that law is predicated on the assumption that physical interactions propagate instantaneously (at infinite speed)..."
- "The first indirect evidence for the existence of gravitational waves came in 1974 from the observed orbital decay of the Hulse–Taylor binary pulsar..."
- "...the observed orbital decay of the Hulse–Taylor binary pulsar, which matched the decay predicted by general relativity as energy is lost to gravitational radiation."
- "In 1993, Russell A. Hulse and Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. received the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery."
- "The first direct observation of gravitational waves was made in 2015..."
- "...when a signal generated by the merger of two black holes was received by the LIGO gravitational wave detectors in Livingston, Louisiana, and in Hanford, Washington."
- "The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was subsequently awarded to Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish for their role in the direct detection of gravitational waves."
- "In gravitational-wave astronomy, observations of gravitational waves are used to infer data about the sources of gravitational waves."
- "Sources that can be studied this way include binary star systems composed of white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes..."
- "...events such as supernovae..."
- "...and the formation of the early universe shortly after the Big Bang."
- Gravitational waves...propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light."
- "...waves similar to electromagnetic waves but the gravitational equivalent."
- "Later he refused to accept gravitational waves."
- "The first direct observation of gravitational waves was made in 2015... The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was subsequently awarded... for their role in the direct detection of gravitational waves."
- "...showing one of the ways the methods of Newtonian physics are unable to explain phenomena associated with relativity."