According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, gravity is the curvature of space-time caused by the presence of mass. The greater the mass of an object, the greater the curvature of space-time, at the limit of the object's volume. As objects with mass move through spacetime, the curvature changes to reflect the changes in the location of those objects. Under certain circumstances, accelerating objects generate changes in this curvature, which propagate outward at the speed of light, in a wave-like manner. These propagation phenomena are called gravitational waves. In other words, gravitational waves are ripples that distort space-time, increasing and decreasing distances between objects at a frequency matching that of the wave. (Stretching and squeezing everything in their path). Just like a stone dropped into a pond, the waves generated become weaker as they move away from the source. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Powerful gravitational waves are created when gargantuan objects move at high speeds; two very dense objects revolve around each other in binary pairs. These couples can for example be two black holes, two neutron stars or a black hole and a neutron star. Detectable gravitational waves can also be generated by a supernova (explosion of a massive star). However, because these events occurred so far away, the gravitational waves distort spacetime to a very small extent (many times smaller than the width of a proton) by the time they reach Earth. Measuring such tiny changes is rather impossible for most measuring devices, hence the difficulty in detecting them. Although the announcement of the first direct detection of gravitational waves was made in 2016, the actual detection was made in September 2015 by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory). A pair of black holes (29 and 36 times the mass of the Sun) merged, producing distortions in space-time that LIGO in turn detected. Since then, we have had four additional detections, with the fourth being significant because it was also detected by the Virgo gravitational wave detector in Italy. Similarly to the first, the other three gravitational waves detected were also caused by pairs of colliding black holes, while the fifth observation was due to merging neutron stars. The LIGO facility consists of two L-shaped detectors located in Washington state and Louisiana, each of which are equipped with mirrors and lasers to measure tiny changes in space-time caused by passing waves gravitational. The two LIGO observatories have two arms more than 4 km long and perpendicular to each other. Two mirrors are installed at each end of the arms and their evolution of distance between them is recorded. A laser bouncing between the mirrors tracks the distance between them. Because the detectors are sensitive to external disturbances like passing trucks, earthquakes, ocean waves, etc., it is crucial that a signal appears in both detectors for it to be real. In addition to LIGO, there is a third observatory (the Virgo detector of the European Gravitational Observatory) which is designed similarly. It is expected that India and Japan will also soon operate their own similar observatories. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized item now from.