LIGO tagged posts

LIGO detected gravitational waves radiating from two black holes that crashed together about 1.3 billion years ago, simulation pictured. Researchers from Kyoto University have suggested the two black holes detected by Ligo could be ‘primordial’ black holes, instead of traditional black holes

An interdisciplinary team of physicists and astronomers at the University of Amsterdam’s GRAPPA Center of Excellence for Gravitation and Astroparticle Physics has devised a new strategy to search for ‘primordial’ black holes produced in the early universe. Such black holes are possibly responsible for the gravitational wave events observed by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory LIGO.

The researchers specifically show that the lack of bright X-ray and radio sources at the center of o...

A visualization of a supercomputer simulation of merging black holes sending out gravitational waves. Credit: NASA/C. Henze Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-05-uncover-gravitational-characteristics.html#jCp

Monash researchers have identified a new concept – ‘orphan memory’ – which changes the current thinking around gravitational waves. Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicts that cataclysmic cosmic explosions stretch the fabric of spacetime. The stretching of spacetime is called ‘gravitational waves.’ After such an event, spacetime does not return to its original state. It stays stretched out. This effect is called ‘memory.’ The term ‘orphan’ alludes to the fact that the parent wave is not directly detectable.

“These waves could open the way for studying physics currently...

Andromeda Galaxy (stock image). Credit: © passmil198216 / Fotolia

Quest to settle riddle over Einstein’s theory may soon be over. Tests using advanced technology could resolve a longstanding puzzle over what is driving the accelerated expansion of the Universe. Researchers have long sought to determine how the Universe’s accelerated expansion is being driven. Calculations in a new study could help to explain whether dark energy- as required by Einstein’s theory of general relativity – or a revised theory of gravity are responsible.

Einstein’s theory, which describes gravity as distortions of space and time, included a Cosmological Constant...

This simulation shows how two galaxies merge over a period of 15 millionen years. The red and the blue dots illustrate the two black holes (image: Astrophysical Journal).

If two galaxies collide, the merging of their central black holes triggers gravitational waves, which ripple throughout space. An international research team involving the University of Zurich has now calculated that this occurs around 10 million years after the two galaxies merge – much faster than previously assumed.

In his General Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein predicted gravitational waves over a century ago; this year, they were detected directly for the first time: The American Gravitational Wave Observatory LIGO recorded such curvatures in space from Earth, which were caused by the merging of two massive b...