Have you ever thought about the best strategy that can be applied to spot a missing object? In our day-to-day life, we often search for misplaced objects like keys, pens, notes etc. We search those objects whether they are on the visible surface or behind something. Likewise, Scientists are also facing challenges in choosing the best strategy to spot “Gravitational waves” in the fabric of space and time.
Are you raising your eyebrows on the words Gravitational waves?
Well, Gravitational waves are invisible ripples in space which travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). The eminent scientist Albert Einstein came up with many ideas about gravity and space. In addition to that, he predicted that the movement of two bodies (planets, stars) around each other in a faster manner can cause ripples in space (just like ripples created when a stone falls in water bodies). While spreading, these ripples stretch and squeeze the objects in their path.
Causes of Gravitational waves:
i) The merging of two black holes.
ii) When Star explodes asymmetrically(Supernova).
iii) When two big stars are orbiting each other.
As these objects are far away and at times their movements cause small, weak gravitational waves. Moreover by the time they reach Earth, these waves are very weak thereby make the detection process difficult.
First Detection:
On 14 September 2015, Scientists detected the Gravitational waves with the help of an instrument LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory). The formation of ripples happened as a result of the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion years ago.
According to Karl Wette, postdoctoral fellow of the Australian National University’s ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), rapidly rotating Neutron stars may be “humming” continuous Gravitational waves. Neutron stars are the ultra-dense remains of exploded stars. In a recently published study, Karl Wette and his team adopted ‘Where you were outside the kitchen?’ approach to locate the waves. They hypothesized that continuous gravitational waves would be detected near Pulsar. And pulsars are the remains of dead stars which regularly emits radio waves. These are known as Cosmic lighthouses and a large array of pulsars helps in measuring extreme subtle abnormalities like gravitational waves.
The team spent nearly 6000 days of computer time searching and listening for gravitational waves on that location. For running the algorithms in superfast mode, they used graphic processing units (specialist electronics) that are normally used for computer games. In accordance to Wette, they did a sensitive search on that location than previous searches. But their guess turned out to be wrong as they were unable to hear any hums. Also, he ensured that the team will go on listening to those faint hums.
If you fail, never give up because F.A.I.L means “first attempt in learning”. End is not the end if fact E.N.D. means “effort never dies”.
If you get No as an answer, remember N.O. means “Next Opportunity”.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Let’s hope and be positive that this search will be a stepping stone to the accomplishment in this field.
Reference: Phys.org
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