Ride the wave

Look: Largest-ever catalog of gravitational-wave events

by Robin Bea
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
T. Dietrich (Potsdam University and Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), N. Fischer, S. Ossokine, H. Pfeiffer (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics)

In 2015, researchers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) captured the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, more than a century after the phenomenon was first proposed.

The SXS (Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes) Project

Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Proposed by Henri Poincaré in 1905 and predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity, gravitational waves are distortions in spacetime created by the movement of extremely massive objects.

Tap
Space, Time, Dinosaurs, and Other Essential Topics
Get the best of science—space missions, black holes, futuristic biology—delivered daily, minus the jargon.
By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy