An artist’s impression of two stars orbiting each other (left). The orbit shrinks as the system emits gravitational waves (middle). When the stars merge (right), there is a resulting powerful emission of gravitational waves. [Image: NASA]

The LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors have been hunting for signals from the collisions of neutron stars and black holes, which are dense objects formed from the remains of stars many times more massive than our Sun. When two of these objects orbit each other in a binary system, the emission of gravitational waves will gradually carry away some of their orbital energy, forcing them to get closer and closer together. This happens slowly at first, but as the orbit gets tighter the gravitational waves get stronger and the process accelerates until eventually the stars collide and merge, emitting in the last few seconds one of the most powerful outflows of energy in the Universe. See: What gravitational waves can tell us about colliding stars and black holes

The LIGO Hanford Control Room

LIGO’s mission is to directly observe gravitational waves of cosmic origin. These waves were first predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity in 1916, when the technology necessary for their detection did not yet exist. Gravitational waves were indirectly suggested to exist when observations were made of the binary pulsar PSR 1913+16, for which the Nobel Prize was awarded to Hulse and Taylor in 1993.

The Binary Pulsar PSR 1913+16:

See Also:

•  Advanced LIGO — The Next Step in Gravitational Wave Astronomy