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GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
BY ENGIN EGE GUREL
The idea of a gravitational wave has been around for
some time. Einstein, in his general theory of relativity,
predicted that such a thing exists. He speculated that
something should happen when two matters intersect
with each other. But what are gravitational waves? In their
most basic form, they are fluctuations in space-time due
to catastrophic intersections of accelerating masses, for
example, stars. Think of it as two giant bombs exploding
after their collision. They are invisible and travel at the
speed of light (299,792,458 m/s). They are also known to
stretch everything on their path while going through.
Main Causes
It is known that the higher the speed of the colliding objects is, the more immense the effect will be. For it to happen,
the masses should be in accelerated motion. The only exception is perfectly spherical motion which will not
cause any effect in favor of the gravitational waves to radiate. The examples are:
- Two objects orbiting each other can cause gravitational waves. (Two stars orbiting each other, for example)
- Supernovas will eradiate with an exception of a perfectly spherical explosion which is unlikely.
- A spinning non-axisymmetric planetoid.
Its Effects
Gravitational waves are constantly passing over earth. While the effects would be destructive and catastrophic, the
waves get millions or billions of times smaller (1000 times smaller than a nucleus of an atom) than the start because
of their distance from their source. Therefore, even the strongest ones are at a minimal level. The strongest wave
ever recorded reached the earth after traveling millions of light-years. And the whole effect was a millionth of a
proton change in the length of the four km long LIGO arm.
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