Michael Porter on Nostr: npub18ljjw…480hq Not so much a fact, as an entire sequence of events. When LIGO ...
npub18ljjwuh8vt0lrh3fe3vsefddt40u297gtsk3d4v4ywhjnvms9zfqy480hq (npub18lj…80hq) Not so much a fact, as an entire sequence of events. When LIGO first detected gravitational waves from merging black holes, I wrote this for my students:
Over a billion years ago two black holes, each with a mass ~30x the mass of our entire solar system, spiralled in toward each other and collided at half the speed of light. The collision took place in a quarter of a second and produced a larger black hole, with a mass of about 60 solar masses.
In the process, *three solar systems worth of mass* was converted to gravitational energy (in the form of waves), with a peak power output about 50 times that of the entire visible universe!
The spiral, and collision, caused ripples in the fabric of spacetime.
These ripples spread out through space, and by the time they get to Earth, they cause displacements *smaller than the diameter of a proton*.
Nonetheless, we were able to detect these displacements, with a system of interfering laser beams, projected in ultra high vacuum tunnels 4 km long.
Over a billion years ago two black holes, each with a mass ~30x the mass of our entire solar system, spiralled in toward each other and collided at half the speed of light. The collision took place in a quarter of a second and produced a larger black hole, with a mass of about 60 solar masses.
In the process, *three solar systems worth of mass* was converted to gravitational energy (in the form of waves), with a peak power output about 50 times that of the entire visible universe!
The spiral, and collision, caused ripples in the fabric of spacetime.
These ripples spread out through space, and by the time they get to Earth, they cause displacements *smaller than the diameter of a proton*.
Nonetheless, we were able to detect these displacements, with a system of interfering laser beams, projected in ultra high vacuum tunnels 4 km long.