What are Gravitational Waves?
Not only do gravitational waves represent the ultimate confirmation of the theory of General Relativity, they will provide us with a new way to see the cosmos. But what are these ripples in spacetime and where do they come from?
Whilst it may not have the snappiest name, the event
GW150914 is pretty significant in terms of our understanding of the Universe. This event, with a name that includes ‘GW’ as a prefix which is an abbreviation of ‘Gravitational Wave’ and the date of observation–15/09/14– marked humanity’s first direct detection of gravitational waves.
This was groundbreaking on two fronts; firstly it successfully confirmed a prediction made by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity almost a century before. A prediction that stated events occurring in the Universe do not just warp spacetime, but in certain cases, can actually send ripples through this cosmic fabric.
First Binary Pulsar Research Paper
First Binary Pulsar Research Paper
768 Words4 Pages
The1993 Nobel prize for physics was a shared award between Russell Alan Hulse and Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. Russell Alan Hulse who was born on November 28,1950 in New York was an American physicist, he studied at cooper union college and earned a Ph.D. degree in physics in 1975 from the university of Massachusetts. Joseph H. Taylor Jr. born March 24,1941 in Philadelphia was an American radio astronomer and physicist. He studied at Haverford College and earned a Ph.D. in astronomy at Harvard University in 1696, he then joined Princeton University where he became a professor. Together Taylor and his graduate student, Hulse, discovered the first binary pulsar. Even though pulsars had already been discovered they introduced a new kind of pulsar,
2020: A Year in Space
Despite the global pandemic that has brought much of the world to a grinding halt, space scientists have continued to push the boundaries of our knowledge throughout 2020.
It’s difficult to mention the year 2020 without referencing COVID-19, but as more human beings than ever before were wishing they could take a break from the surface of the planet, space research continued to push our knowledge of the stars. Whilst much of the scientific community was consumed with combating a pandemic, physicists, astronomers, cosmologists, and other researchers were further pushing our understanding of space and the objects which dwell there.