{"id":2118,"date":"2017-03-29T10:47:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T10:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/?p=2118"},"modified":"2021-11-29T19:04:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T19:04:45","slug":"gravitational-waves-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/gravitational-waves-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Facts You Didn\u2019t Know About Gravitational Waves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s your guide to gravitational waves, it is a piece of cake, but before you go ahead, this is what happened: researchers at Montana State University have an update\u00a0from the LIGO observatory on their progress in detecting\u00a0gravitational waves. It is one of the biggest mysteries of the past 100 years that we inherited from Albert Einstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is certainly a perplaxing thing \u2013 otherwise it wouldn\u2019t have taken so much time to explore, right? So it\u2019s OK not to know what many scientists are physics lovers are so excited about.<\/p>\n

No worries, we’re here to explain!<\/p>\n

1. Einstein was The First to Mention Gravitational Waves in 1916 in His General Theory of Relativity.<\/h2>\n
\"Einstein

courtesy of: englishbookgeorgia.com<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The first time that his predictions about the curvature of space and time was confirmed was in 1919, 14 years after the publication of his special theory of relativity. In it he predicted that visible light from the stars would bend around the sun. Astronomers were skeptical however when the solar eclipse of 1919 came about they turned their telescopes to the sky and saw exactly what he predicted. According to Albert Einstein<\/a>\u2019s theory of general relativity, gravity is not a force reaching out through the universe. It\u2019s a bending of space-time. When an object accelerates, it distorts the space-time around it, and that distortion travels away from the source at the speed of light.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0One Possible Way to Hunt for The\u00a0waves\u00a0Is To Measure Stretches in Space-time.<\/h2>\n
\"One

courtesy of: m.caltech.edu<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

For that, American scientists use a huge laser system, the Laser Interferometer Gravitationalwave Observatory (LIGO).<\/p>\n

Its detectors – which look like laser ‘rulers’ – are meant to spot tiny vibrations from passing gravitational waves.<\/p>\n

3. The Impact of Gravitational Waves Is Very, Very Small<\/h2>\n
\"The

courtesy of: ligo.caltech.edu<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Since gravitational waves are a ripple in space-time, they cause the distance between two points to change ever so slightly. How slightly? LIGO must be able to measure distances as small as 10\u221219 meter. The proton has a radius of about 0.85 \u00d7 10\u221215 meter, or 10,000 times larger.<\/p>\n

4. We Almost Managed to Catch The Gravity Waves in 2014, But Not Quite. It Was a False Alarm.<\/h2>\n
\"We

courtesy of: physicsworld.com<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

BICEP2, an observatory in Antarctica, right near the South Pole, thought it had netted the evidence for gravitational waves from the dawn of our universe, but no.<\/p>\n

If you still do not quite get what is happening, it’s OK. First, it’s a VERY short guide to a mystery as old as our universe. Second, scientists have been looking into it for 100 years since Einstein (so, add the time he spent, too!) and they are not there yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

5. LIGO Presumably Wouldn\u2019t Have Detected this Signal Without Advanced LIGO<\/h2>\n
\"LIGO

courtesy of: kitp.ucsb.edu<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Advanced LIGO increased the sensitivity of the detectors. Since a gravitational wave signal decreases in strength with distance, a more sensitive detector lets you \u201csee\u201d farther into the universe. Much farther.<\/p>\n

6. The National Science Foundation Made A Serious Investment in LIGO<\/h2>\n
\"The

courtesy of: businessinsider.com<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The NSF started funding the search for gravitational waves in the 1970s. Since then it has invested approximately $1.1 billion. That\u2019s a lot of money over a very long time. Is this project worth a billion dollars? It is upon on you to decide. Nevertheless, just a minute statistics: \u00a0In 2015 the US military spent $600 billion\u2014compared to that LIGO doesn\u2019t seem so expensive.<\/p>\n

7. Measuring Gravitational Waves Is a Challange<\/h2>\n
\"

courtesy of: tricitiesbusinessnews.com<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

To detect a change in distance much smaller than the proton requires great precision. Each LIGO installation is a laser interferometer made up of two underground pipes, each 1.3 meters (4.3 feet) wide and 4 km (2.5 miles) long, set in an L-shape. The inside of the pipes is a vacuum. When a gravitational wave passes through LIGO, one arm of the instrument gets longer and the other gets shorter. A laser beam is split in half, sent down the two pipes, reflected back, and then recombined so the two beams cancel each other out in destructive interference if there is no gravitational wave. If there is a gravitational wave, the beams won\u2019t cancel each other out. A 4-km long beam is still not enough to detect a gravitational wave, so the beams are bounced back and forth about 400 times so the light travels a distance of 1,600 km (1,000 miles).<\/p>\n

[sociallocker id=”858″]<\/p>\n

8. LIGO Is Ultra Sensitive<\/h2>\n
\"LIGO

courtesy of: sciencenews.org<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LIGO detects such a small change in distance that it can detect a lot of other vibrations too. For example, the speed limit at LIGO is 16 km (10 miles) per hour to minimize vibrations from nearby cars. One source of noise is gravity gradient noise, which is the minute change in Earth\u2019s gravitational field when a vibration passes through the ground near the mirrors. The mirrors that reflect the light weigh 40 kg (88 pounds) and hang by silica fibers in a complex suspension system. To make sure that LIGO does detect gravitational waves and not just passing cars, there are two LIGO installations\u2014one in Livingston, Louisiana, and the other in Hanford, Washington. A gravitational wave would show up at both installations. [\/sociallocker]<\/p>\n

9. Gravitational Waves Come from Very Heavy Objects<\/h2>\n
\"Gravitational

courtesy of: scitechdaily.com<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

So how massive an object are we talking about? The first proof that gravitational waves actually exist came from a binary pulsar\u2014two neutron stars, each about the mass of the Sun, that orbit each other. The pulsars\u2019 orbit is gradually shrinking, so the pulsars are losing energy. That energy is exactly the amount that general relativity predicts that the pulsars would give off in gravitational waves.<\/p>\n

10. New Types of Guns<\/h2>\n
\"New

courtesy of: hazzard65.deviantart.com<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Humanity loves weaponry. With every new discovery that is made in the world of science<\/a> one of the first things that we ask ourselves is \u2018can we weaponise it?\u2019 Thankfully astrophysicists have been quick to point out that the idea of using gravitational waves to propel interstellar craft is absolute rubbish and the idea of turning them into weapons is just as laughable. But that did not stop the United States Defense Intelligence Agency from forming a commission to look into the idea if whether high-frequency gravitational waves could pose a threat to US security.<\/p>\n

They were probably just making sure that they have all of their bases covered but let\u2019s not forget that if you asked the Japanese government in 1940 if they had a contingency plan for the possibility of a 15 Kilo-tonne nuclear bomb being dropped on them, they would have laughed at you too. And we all know what happened in 1945.<\/p>\n

11. An Option for New Communication Technology in The Future<\/h2>\n
\"An

courtesy of: unilibrium.net<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the dawn of man electromagnetic waves have been our preferred means of communication. We used smoke signals, telephones and radios. They are a great method of communication because they travel at the speed of light and are capable of covering great distances. The only drawbacks that we have found in the use of electromagnetic waves in communications is that they are easily absorbed by mass. Gravitational waves solves this problem because they are made of particles so tiny that they pass through mass effortlessly with no dampening. With the \u2018line of sight\u2019 problem fixed, the use of GWs for communications would greatly reduce the need for peripheral devices such as satellites and relay points which would greatly reduce communication costs.<\/p>\n

The only drawback is that gravity waves are very difficult to generate and detecting them is even harder. For their use to be practical they have to be generated at high-frequencies. The most efficient technology that we have capable of transmitting HFGWs is an in-phase micro-electric mechanical system (MEMS) and the Li-Baker HFGW detector to detect them. These devices show that communication using GWs is possible however much more work must be done to increase the sensitivity of GW detectors and reduce the amount of power required to produce HFGWs. This is without any doubt among the most significant facts<\/a> about the gravity waves.<\/p>\n

12. The Prospect of Time Travel<\/h2>\n
\"Measuring

courtesy of: bigthink.com<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sci-fi fan-boys across the globe collectively wet their pants when gravitational waves were confirmed to indeed exist. What made them so happy about it is that there is a part of Einstein\u2019s special relativity equation which relies on the existence of gravitational waves to make time travel possible. The scientific community was quick to point out that we are still a long way off from travelling through time any faster or slower than 365 days per year however with Einstein\u2019s knack for being correct it may just be a matter if time.<\/p>\n

General relativity equations are telling us that they (negative mass particles and stable wormholes) would permit time travel.<\/p>\n

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Here’s your guide to gravitational waves, it is a piece of cake, but before you go ahead, this is what happened: researchers at Montana State University have an update\u00a0from the LIGO observatory on their progress in detecting\u00a0gravitational waves. It is one of the biggest mysteries of the past 100 years that we inherited from Albert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[279,324,327,325,326,328],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40322,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions\/40322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}