Search for Gravity Waves Illustrated (Gallery)

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Gravity Waves

Credit: Henze/NASA

3D visualization of gravitational waves produced by two orbiting black holes.

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Lack of Gravity Waves Puts Limits on Exotic Cosmology Theories

Credit: K. Thorne (Caltech) and T. Carnahan (NASA GSFC)

Artist's impression of gravitational waves from two orbiting black holes.

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Cosmic Superstrings Might Sing in Gravity Waves

Credit: Matt DePies/UW.

Cosmic superstring loops wiggle and oscillate, producing gravitational waves, then slowly shrink as they lose energy until they disappear.

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LISA Gravity Wave Hunting Mission

Credit: ESA

The LISA mission was planned to be the first space-based mission to attempt the detection of gravitational waves. These are ripples in spacetime that are emitted by exotic objects such as black holes.

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Gravitational Waves

Credit: NASA

Cataclysmic events, such as this artist's rendition of a binary-star merger, are believed to create gravitational waves that cause ripples in space-time.

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Einstein Telescope - Gravitational Wave Observatory

Credit: ASPERA

The proposed Einstein Telescope gravitational wave observatory.

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Scientists Now Expect to Find Gravitational Waves

Credit: LIGO Laboratory

A diagram of the LIGO detector, which will detect the ripples in space-time by using a device called a laser interferometer. The time it takes light to travel between suspended mirrors is measured with high precision using controlled laser light.

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Hunting for Gravity Waves

Credit: S. M. Dickerson, Stanford University

A proposed space mission to detect gravitational waves would split atoms to search for minute acceleration changes caused by passing space-time ripples. In this artist's illustration, the red line represents a laser beam connecting the two spacecraft, and the white stars represent the atom interferometers.

The Search for Gravity Waves Illustrated (Gallery)