Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time created by the interaction of massive objects in space, such as black holes and neutron stars. Their existence was first predicted by Albert Einstein in his 1916 paper describing his theory of general relativity. In 2015, scientists made the first detection of gravitational waves, observing ripples from the collision of two black holes. The discovery won astrophysicists Kip Thorne, Barry Baris and Rainer Weiss the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics. Subsequent observations have also detected gravitational waves from colliding neutron stars. Learn more about gravitational waves here.
Related Topics: Black Holes, Dark Matter, The Theory of Relativity in Space
Latest about gravitational waves
The universe is humming with ripples in spacetime: Scientists just doubled our catalog of black hole and neutron star collisions
The catalog of gravitational waves "heard" by LIGO, KAGRA and Virgo has doubled with detections of spacetime ripples.
How fast is the universe actually expanding? Ripples in spacetime could finally solve 'Hubble tension'
Using gravitational waves as a measure of the universe's rate of expansion could solve the biggest headache in physics, the so-called "Hubble tension."
Starlight warped in the fabric of spacetime could help us find hidden black holes dancing together
Flashes of gravitationally lensed starlight could act as cosmic lighthouses revealing the presence of binary supermassive black holes in close orbit.
Watch dead neutron stars smash together in new NASA supercomputer simulation
"We studied the last several orbits before the merger, when the entwined magnetic fields undergo rapid and dramatic changes, and modeled potentially observable high-energy signals."
A black hole 'feeding frenzy' could help explain a cosmic mystery uncovered by the James Webb Space Telescope
"It is exciting to think that Little Red Dots may represent the first direct observational evidence of the birth of the most massive black holes in the universe."
Have gravitational waves provided the first hint of primordial black holes born during the Big Bang?
Scientists may have "heard" the first tantalizing evidence of primordial black holes formed directly from overly dense pockets of matter just after the Big Bang.
Scientists hear 2 newborn black holes 'crying' through ripples in spacetime — and one had a birth unlike anything seen before
Gravitational wave detectors on Earth have heard the "cry" of two newborn black holes with some unusual and remarkable properties.
How scientists are using spinning dead stars to find ripples in the fabric of spacetime
Identifying the gravitational waves from black holes binaries could also make it clearer to detect primordial gravitational waves that date back to inflation at the moment of the Big Bang.
LIGO Legacy: 10 incredible gravitational wave breakthroughs to celebrate observatory's landmark 2015 find
The first-ever detection of gravitational waves was made 10 years ago today (Sept. 14). In celebration, Space.com takes you through the most significant gravitational wave discoveries to date.
Gravitational wave detector confirms theories of Einstein and Hawking: 'This is the clearest view yet of the nature of black holes'
Celebrating 10 years since the first detection of gravitational waves coming from colliding black holes, LIGO has confirmed the predictions of the greatest minds in physics.
