Gravitational Waves and LIGO
A star reaches the end of its lifespan. After engulfing half of its planets in the process of becoming a red supergiant, it has finally come time for it to die. It begins to collapse on itself, fusion unable to fight the force of gravity. It forms into a black hole a fraction of its original size. A hungry pit of darkness, craving the taste of matter rips apart the remaining bodies in its star system. After the chaotic transfer of mass, all that is left is a gaping hole and the debris that surrounds it.
This entire incident is detectable by humans, even if the entire incident is undetectable by electromagnetic radiation. The natural question arises, how are we able to find out that things like this even exist?
The answer is gravitational waves. Gravitational waves allow astrophysicists to find out about major galactic events, even if they aren’t able to completely see it. For instance, if a layer of debris is covering our view of a particular star system, major events can still be detected through the use of gravitational waves.
The discovery of gravitational waves was a result of Einstein’s Theory of relativity which stated that gravity curves space and extreme gravitational forces can lead to disruptions in the curvature in space. These distributions are distinct and are noticeably different from other perturbations in the galaxy. The waves that move through the curvature of space due to these gravitational interactions are known as gravitational waves. The waves can cross systems and even galaxies if the original incident is strong enough.
Due to the sheer amount of information that can be probed from gravitational waves the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detects the waves of gravitational waves, very similar to how it detects infrared waves. It allows for the scientific community to see through the universe with clear glasses. Instead of being limited to the optical imagery that we can see, we also have the gravitational waves that we can feel.
