Surely it must. It distorts matter.wolram said:I am just trying to understand if gravitational radiation does work when passing through an object?
The articles say that the equivalent of 3 suns of mass are converted to energy in an instant.wolram said:And how much mass or energy typically is lost from the merging of 2 Black Holes?
DaveC426913 said:Surely it must. It distorts matter.
The articles say that the equivalent of 3 suns of mass are converted to energy in an instant.
Er, no, because it was gravitational, not electromagnetic.wolram said:Did we pick this up in the electro magnetic spectrum?
The total power output in gravitational waves during the brief collision of these black holes was 50 times greater than all of the power put out by all of the stars of the Universe put together. Whoa. Because the collision was so short, the energy released wasn't quite that much, just the equivalent of taking three suns and annihilating them, NBD.
I think the question is: are they referring to only the energy released in the form of the grav waves, and what about the release in EMR?Jonathan Scott said:Er, no, because it was gravitational, not electromagnetic.
There is no evidence apart from the gravitational wave observation, but if you look at the evidence, it matches the theoretical prediction for inspiral and merging quite beautifully.wolram said:I do not want to be pessimistic or put the mockers on a fantastic discovery, but is there any secondary evidence for this merger?
wolram said:I am just trying to understand if gravitational radiation does work when passing through an object?
Yes. But very, very little. The LIGO detectors, for instance, have to detect length changes that are of the order of the size of an atomic nucleus across four kilometers. Their noise is actually dominated by the quantum uncertainty in the position of the mirror. They may carry a lot of energy, but matter is almost entirely unaffected.wolram said:I am just trying to understand if gravitational radiation does work when passing through an object?
I don't know how it scales with mass, but this event involved the merger of black holes of about 35 and 30 solar masses. As mentioned above, about 3 solar masses in energy was emitted in the form of gravitational waves, so about 5% of their total mass energy was emitted in less than a second.wolram said:And how much mass or energy typically is lost from the merging of 2 Black Holes?
The nice thing about black hole-black hole mergers is that they produce a really distinctive signal, one that depends not only upon the masses of the black holes but also upon their rotation. They were actually able to show that the rotation of the resulting larger black hole was consistent with the spin and orbit of the pre-collision black holes. This event was separately detected in the two LIGO observatories, so we know it's not just some local source that weirdly looked a lot like a far-away BH-BH merger.wolram said:I do not want to be pessimistic or put the mockers on a fantastic discovery, but is there any secondary evidence for this merger?
I thought I'd read that it was 5 orders of magnitude smaller: 1/10,000th the diameter of a proton.Chalnoth said:Yes. But very, very little. The LIGO detectors, for instance, have to detect length changes that are of the order of the size of an atomic nucleus across four kilometers.
Jonathan Scott said:There is no evidence apart from the gravitational wave observation, but if you look at the evidence, it matches the theoretical prediction for inspiral and merging quite beautifully.
I would however like to point out that the use of the term "black hole" in this context is presumably simply because GR says that something that massive but small (as indicated by the high rotation rate achieved just before merging) must be a black hole. The lack of visible electromagnetic emission could be considered minor but positive evidence for this prediction. However, as far as I know, the result does not actually provide sufficient detail of the collision process to confirm this particular aspect of GR's predictions.
Well, seeing as the BHs themselves are almost 60 solar masses, and any star above 20 will become a BH itself, it's pretty elementary that no star could exist large enough to contain them.Dirk Pons said:Maybe the two black holes somehow formed inside the star? But then they need to keep themselves apart long enough to eventually inspiral, but somehow also support the star from collapsing until the very end... wow that is a challenge.
Stars can be over two hundred solar masses. They don't have very long lifetimes at those masses, but they do exist.DaveC426913 said:Well, seeing as the BHs themselves are almost 60 solar masses, and any star above 20 will become a BH itself, it's pretty elementary that no star could exist large enough to contain them.
Gravitational radiation is a type of energy that is emitted by objects with mass as they accelerate. It is caused by the warping of space-time, as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. Gravitational radiation can cause objects to vibrate or oscillate, and can also cause them to lose energy and slow down over time.
Yes, gravitational radiation can be detected using specialized instruments called interferometers. These instruments use laser beams to measure tiny changes in the distance between two objects, which can be caused by passing gravitational waves. The first detection of gravitational waves was made in 2015 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).
Gravitational radiation plays a crucial role in the formation and evolution of black holes. When two massive objects such as black holes merge, they emit a burst of gravitational radiation that can be detected by instruments on Earth. This radiation carries information about the masses and spins of the merging black holes, providing valuable insights into their properties.
While gravitational radiation is a fascinating phenomenon, it is not currently feasible to use it for space travel. The energy of gravitational waves is incredibly small, and it would take an enormous amount of energy to produce a detectable amount. Additionally, the frequency of gravitational waves is much too low for them to be used for propulsion.
No, gravitational radiation does not pose any harm to Earth or its inhabitants. Gravitational waves are incredibly weak and only have a noticeable effect on objects with extremely large masses, such as black holes. The amount of gravitational radiation emitted by everyday objects, such as humans, is negligible.