In the history of human civilization humans looked up at the sky and saw light. Now we can listen to the very fabric of space and time.
Precision Falling
One of the major problems with LIGO is that it is ground based. Any vibration of the ground, such as a truck driving on a road miles away, can cause noise in the signal. A better alternative would be to put the LIGO project in space. This is the idea behind the Evolved Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (eLISA)
Joseph Weber And The Failed Search For Gravitational Waves
Gravitational waves are the last great prediction of general relativity to be directly observed. According to Einstein’s theory of gravity, a mass in motion creates ripples in space and time. Ripples caused by large masses like binary neutron stars or black holes should be large enough for us to detect across light years. But despite recent rumors, no gravitational waves have been detected so far.
The Case Of The Missing Gravitational Waves
One of the last predictions of general relativity to be directly verified is gravitational waves. We have indirect evidence that they exist, but new research finds they may be even more difficult to detect directly that we’ve thought.
Shaken, Not Stirred
One of the predictions of general relativity is that the motion of large masses, such as a binary system of black holes or neutron stars, should produce gravitational waves. When most people think of waves they typically think of water waves. Drop a pebble in a calm pond and you can watch the waves spread out over the surface of …
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