Albert Einstein was the very first scientist to try to better understand the mystery behind gravitational waves. By analysing black hole mergers, one could see magic happening but nothing more – except secrecy from the universe.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have found new solutions to the problem that has plagued even the great Einstein. When two black holes are near each other, and they collide, they emanate pure energy – it’s one of the most energetic events in the universe – and they release it in form of gravity waves.
Think about it this way – you’re walking down on the pathway in the park, and it leads you to a pond. Near the pond there is a nice little old woman that feeds the ducks by throwing little pebbles of bread into the water. The ripples that are provoked by the pebble of bread can be compared with the release of energy, in form of gravitational waves, from the colliding black holes. Of course, it’s not the same, but the pattern is. The waves are in space time itself, and nobody knows how to calculate its distance.
Physicists have been working on detecting, and analysing data from the event, but have been unsuccessful so far using sensitive detectors – it’s time for another plan.
Michael Kesden from the University of Texas at Dallas, has stated in a paper regarding the effective potentials and morphological transitions for binary black hole spin precession, which you can read right here, that – “An accelerating charge, like an electron, produces electromagnetic radiation, including visible light waves. Similarly, any time you have an accelerating mass, you can produce gravitational waves.”.
By finding a way to analyse the pure energy dispersed in gravitational waves, astrophysicists can open a whole new world for astronomers.
Astronomers are studying every object in space, over a wide range of electromagnetic frequencies – from visible, and infrared light to radio and micro waves.
“Using gravitational waves as an observational tool, you could learn about the characteristics of the black holes that were emitting those waves billions of years ago, information such as their masses and mass ratios, and the way they formed. That’s important data for more fully understanding the evolution and nature of the universe,” Davide Gerosa of Cambridge University stated in a press release.
The key to the equation is finding a way to properly calculate the changes a black hole goes through when it rotates. Researchers have successfully found out that a black hole undergoes 3 different stages over time. It paves the way to better understand how a black hole evolves.
Kesden has also stated in a press release that – “With these solutions, we can create computer simulations that follow black hole evolution over billions of years. A simulation that previously would have taken years can now be done in seconds. But it’s not just faster. There are things that we can learn from these simulations that we just couldn’t learn any other way.”
It feels more and more like living in an Arthur C. Clark book. I’ll probably visit my grand-children on Mars.
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