Gravitational Waves: The latest discoveries and star crash news
Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time created by the interaction of massive objects in space, such as black holes and neutron stars. Their existence was first predicted by Albert Einstein in his 1916 paper describing his theory of general relativity. In 2015, scientists made the first detection of gravitational waves, observing ripples from the collision of two black holes. The discovery won astrophysicists Kip Thorne, Barry Baris and Rainer Weiss the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics. Subsequent observations have also detected gravitational waves from colliding neutron stars. Learn more about gravitational waves here.
Related Topics: Black Holes, Dark Matter, The Theory of Relativity in Space
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Latest about gravitational waves
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By Paul Sutter published
Space mysteries Black hole mergers are beautiful — and some of the most violent events in the cosmos. Here's how the process unfolds.
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By Meredith Garofalo published
College students are making "waves" with a discovery they made during the annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023.
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By Robert Lea published
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How AI is helping us search the universe for alien technosignatures
By Conor Feehly published
"It's now a part of mainstream astrophysics."
Gravitational waves hint at a 'supercool' secret about the Big Bang
By Robert Lea published
If the gravitational wave background detected last year came from a "supercool" phase transition around the time of the Big Bang, they hint at new physics.
Small black holes could play 'hide-and-seek' with elusive supermassive black hole pairs
By Robert Lea published
Small pairs of binary black holes could be used to play hide-and-seek' with elusive supermassive black hole binaries via gravitational waves carry the "baritone singing" of these cosmic titans.
What is quantum gravity?
By Elizabeth Fernandez last updated
Quantum gravity is an attempt to unite the incompatible worlds of quantum mechanics and gravity. We explore it in more detail here.
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By Ben Turner published
Thomas Hertog tells us how he collaborated with Stephen Hawking on his final theorem — a Darwinian revolution in physics that explains the origin of time.
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More-or-less all elements heavier than helium were produced in the 13.8 billion years between the Big Bang and the present day.
Black holes are mysterious, yet also deceptively simple − a new space mission may help physicists answer hairy questions about these astronomical objects
By Gaurav Khanna published
For years, physicists have been looking to prove that black holes are more complex than they seem. And a newly approved European space mission called LISA will help us with this hunt.
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