In September 2015, some of the most sensitive instruments ever built made a remarkable discovery: the first-ever detection of tiny ripples in space and time, known as gravitational waves. Created by a pair of black holes spiralling towards each other and crashing together, the observed wave travelled through space at the speed of light until it was detected by two separate observatories here on Earth.
Now scientists are setting their sights on grander goals, hoping to observe the entire Universe, looking back in time to its very origin, with gravitational waves. In January 2024, the European Space Agency (ESA) gave the green light for an international team of scientists to begin building the largest gravitational wave detector ever built - only this time it will be in space. Its name is LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, and it will revolutionise our understanding of the Universe.
Gravitational waves are ripples in space and time, similar to those formed on the surface of water when a pebble is dropped from a height. Gravitational waves, however, are caused by some of the most violent astrophysical events in the Universe, such as black holes smashing together. They were predicted by Albert Einstein in his general theory of relativity more than a century ago. According to theory, gravitational waves expand and contract spacetime itself. Everything, including you and me, will stretch and squeeze as a gravitational wave passes by. Thankfully, although gravitational waves are thought to be like tsunamis at the source, by the time they reach us here on Earth their effects are minuscule; so small, in fact, that gravitational waves produced by some of the most energetic events in the Universe are thought to only stretch and squeeze the entire Earth by a fraction of the width of an atom.
Shudders in spacetime
Bu hikaye BBC Sky at Night Magazine dergisinin June 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye BBC Sky at Night Magazine dergisinin June 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Unearthing galaxies in the archives
Comparing old Hubble data to today is revealing distant active galaxies
Voyager 1 is back online and exploring the unknown
An interstellar rescue brings the venerable spacecraft back after months out of action
When Haydn met the Herschels
Jonathan Powell on how the astronomer siblings inspired the famous composer
A quicker way to colourise your narrowband frames
Create a bicolour image in Siril using data from just two narrowband filters
Manhattanhenge
New York's urban island of Manhattan, with its gridiron street layout, sees summer Suns set neatly between skyscrapers. Jamie Carter explains the phenomenon
A very British eclipse
In 1927, Britain experienced its first total solar eclipse since 1724. Mike Frost looks at how, like 8 April 2024's US spectacle, eclipse fever swept the nation
The spirit of the eclipse
Eclipse chaser Yvette Cook reports on what it was like in the path of totality in Texas during 8 April's Great American Eclipse
Cosmic rays
In part two of our series, Govert Schilling looks at cosmic rays, the high-energy particles that bombard Earth from space
Stones of the SOLSTICE
Jamie Carter explores 12 ancient stones, tombs and temples across the world that align with the Sun at the solstice
Surfing spacetime with LISA
A new era of gravitational wave astronomy is on its way as the ambitious upcoming LISA space mission joins a host of huge detectors on Earth. Charlie Hoy explains